Empowering Girls and Gender-Diverse Youth to Step Into Young Womanhood/Adulthood
Fire & Flower’s process is the cumulative result of founder Elisa Lee’s graduate research on modern and historic rites of passage theory – combined with her years of experience as a wilderness guide. Fire & Flower offers a variety of program experiences, all of which are unified by the three pillars: Mentorship, Community and Nature Connection.
Girls and gender-diverse youth participating in our week-long camps experience what it looks and feels like to be part of an empowering and accepting community. They will start navigating hard-to-talk-about topics like body image, media literacy, menstruation and sexuality in a fun, honest and safe environment.
Every second year, we offer a comprehensive six-month rite of passage program, where participants are well-supported through their process into young adulthood. In this comprehensive experience, we dive deeper into the topics above, provide personalized mentorship and embark on a 5-day adventure that includes a transformative coming-of-age ceremony. Most importantly, participants continue to be supported after they return home from their trip, so that their growth and radiance is integrated into their daily lives.
In addition, Fire & Flower creates custom programs for schools and organizations, and can travel to communities to deliver our stellar empowerment camps.
Read more about our guiding principles – the three pillars – below:
1. Mentorship
- Mentorship allows youth to feel really seen and to know they really matter. Spending time with a mentor, they are supported in their personal curiosities and challenges while having a safe window into the adult world.
- Mentors continually tailor activities to individual needs and create experiences where youth's strengths are discovered and validated. Mentors act as a bridge for girls and gender-diverse youth to enter young adulthood and the larger world on solid ground, clear of their worth and incredible potential.
2. Community
- Community is vital to ensure youth know that what they are going through is normal, that they belong and that adulthood is vastly diverse.
- Together we normalize ‘awkward’ discussions on menstruation or crushes. We create a culture of acceptance where diversity - of shapes, sizes, ethnicities, passions and personalities - is deeply celebrated.
- Where mentorship recognizes uniqueness, community fosters unity.
3. Nature Connection
- Nature is empowering and with good guidance, girls and gender-diverse youth feel amazing outdoors.
- Nature provides the challenge they need to trust and appreciate themselves and especially their bodies. In a setting that is free of judgement (away from media and devices) and full of beauty and diversity, their nervous systems calm down and they feel grounded and safe to express their inner nature. They also experience the humbling effect of belonging to the circle of life.
- Outer natural beauty encourages our inner natural beauty to shine, and it is usually in nature that the most transformative mentoring and community bonding occurs. Youth find a deep joy and freedom in being themselves. Nature connection is introduced through games, crafts, hiking and reflective exercises.