History & Vision
“Only those who risk going too far
can possibly find out how far one can go.”
– T.S. Eliot
Since its founding in January 2004, Manifest (formerly Q-LAND) has worked hard in the Portland area to empower men to manifest wellness & love through community:
• HIV/STD TESTING: Tested more than 300 high-risk men for HIV & syphilis in more than 34 wellness-promoting parties in gay bars;
• HIV/STD PREVENTION: Provided HIV/STD testing & prevention information, condoms, & lube to more than 30,000 men;
• HEALING TOUCH: Taught more than 300 men how to exchange healing touch in more than 25 monthly healing touch exchange events; we empower men to see themselves as healers and to connect touch, intimacy, & wellness;
• YOGA/EXERCISE: Taught more than l50 men how to use yoga and exercise to achieve their personal wellness goals in two classes a week: Men’s Therapeutic Yoga and Men’s Core Strength;
• MEDITATION: Helped more than 50 men learn meditation in our twice monthly Men’s Meditation Group
• INFORMATION & REFERRAL: Provided wellness information & referral to more than l,000 men in person or on the phone and to more than l0,000 men via our website;
• WORKSHOPS/RETREATS: Inspired more than 600 men to participate in men’s wellness workshops & retreats on topics as diverse as: integrating sex, intimacy, & spirituality; getting in touch with your shadow; masculinity; age stereotypes; play & creativity; etc.
• WELLNESS VALUES: In all our events & programs we encourage men to embody 8 core wellness values (e.g., honesty with compassion, presence, comfort, & respect); by providing alternative venues to online hookups, bars, and sex clubs, we help men integrate touch, intimacy, & wellness;
• INCUBATE NEW PEER-LED PROGRAMS: Used our non-profit staff & leadership, promotional resources, website, & low-cost studio space to help diverse men create the kinds of sliding-scale, peer-led wellness events & programs they want & need. We help men turn their wellness needs into practical, peer-led wellness programs.
PAST IS PROLOGUE: CREATING A MEN’S WELLNESS COMMUNITY
* Portland has one of the highest percentages of men who either don’t have health insurance or are grossly under-insured.
* A perfect storm of negative pressures has been growing for the last seven years and causing a troubling worsening of the health of men, and especially queer men, in the Portland area. The following factors are conspiring to put severe pressure on men’s wellness:
– mounting homophobia & sexism;
– continued high unemployment;
– continuing cuts in public and private health insurance services and coverage;
– skyrocketing healthcare costs;
– neglect & failure of health education;
– failure of our political and corporate leadership to prioritize healthcare;
– aging of babyboomer men is increasing chronic illness just when the healthcare system is failing
* Because of this perfect storm of troubling factors, more and more men, especially queer men, are contracting and not being adequately treated for
– HIV,
– STDs,
– heart disease,
– prostate and other cancers,
– drug/alcohol/sex addictions,
– depression, anxiety,
– diabetes,
– suicidal thoughts/behaviors,
– stress-related chronic illnesses like back/neck pain, excess weight, acid reflux and other digestive disorders, etc.
* It is no accident that men die on average five years younger than women in this state, and for completely preventable causes. We have watched the health care and health education systems deteriorate.
WE CAN SOLVE OUR PROBLEM
Men in the Portland area CAN and MUST create, and in fact ARE creating, an alternative wellness system that provides highly tailored services to all kinds of men based on our needs for mind/body/spirit wellness and an ethic of mutual support, rather than an ethic of greed and scarcity. We must create a system that learns about and engages each man’s specific wellness visions, challenges, and resources. And most importantly this system must not abandon men when they suffer wellness or financial set backs. It must be there no matter what.
As a record number of us grow older, we cannot afford to wait for the government or health insurance companies to fix the health care system. We now have one of the worst health care systems in the developed world. With costs increasing exponentially while government and the business sector continue to cut budgets, almost everyone is predicting the current system will either continue to get worse — or collapse entirely.
MEN’S WELLNESS NETWORK
All Manifest programs are open to men regardless of their ability to pay. We expect all men in the wellness network to be of service to other men in the network in ways that match their abilities, skills, and resources. Again, no one will be turned away for lack of funds or because of pre-existing conditions.
We will serve one another from an ethic of abundance and mutual support. While this sounds like pie-in-the-sky, such a wellness network is based on the traditional bartering and mutual support systems used by rural, indigenous, and traditional societies all over the world throughout human history. Bartering and mutual support for health care is a much older, more reliable, and more traditionally successful system than health insurance (which is why the current health insurance system in the U.S. is in a state of collapse). Until universal healthcare somehow miraculously arrives from on high, a Men’s Wellness Network is something concrete and immediately useful we can experiment with in the Portland men’s community. We can learn from one another, and we can help one another.
In the coming years your health will increasingly depend on the quality of the network of people who will support your wellness no matter what. Money will not be enough. Even wealthy people are finding themselves bankrupt overnight by the ways our state and nation fails to deal with health insurance and catastrophic illness. Traditional health insurance and the bloated health care industry it is propping up are increasingly becoming a mirage that gives no one wellness. It is time to invest in a network of men, here and now, who can and will support all of us in very practical, individualized, affordable, and holistic ways.
Let’s start small, make lots of mistakes, learn from them quickly, and build very real and practical systems of mutual support.
We can do this. You can help.
To learn more about volunteering to help create the Men’s Wellness Network,
* check out the available Volunteer Positions or
* create your own volunteer position that is tailored to your passions, skills, & experience, or
* contact us to brainstorm what is possible for you and the Men’s Wellness Network:
Bart at 503-223-8822 or