YOU ARE A WAYPOINT
Join our Waypoints community, creating lived paths to generational healing.
GOAL: $50,000 | DEADLINE 12.2.25
WAYFINDERS: Rite of Passage
Wayfinders unites veterans, first responders, and community mentors with young adults for healing and renewal in the wilderness — from Alaska to California and beyond.
Finding direction through mentorship, service, and the wild places that teach us who we are.
A journey across generations — restoring belonging, courage, and care for the earth.
RIGHT NOW: We’re raising $50,000 to launch WAYFINDERS in 2026
Your donation funds:
$25,000 - Ignite a new circle of connection — a full community equipped to carry the Wayfinders model forward.
$16,000 -Sponsor a circle of transformation — one mentor and two young adults whose journey will ripple through their entire community
$8,000 - Empower a mentor to guide the next generation — and carry healing home to their community.
$1,000 - Give one young adult the tools and support to cross the threshold into purpose and belonging
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Who we are
Reweaving social fabric through story, land, and shared purpose.
Wayfinders is a national initiative of Open Circle, created in partnership with Atz and Mossy Kilcher and other community elders whose lives model resilience, creativity, and deep connection to the land. Together, we unite veterans, first responders, mentors, and young adults in a shared journey of renewal—restoring meaning, belonging, and purpose across generations.
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What we do
From hardship to healing, from healing to purpose
We guide Intergenerational Rites of Passage that combine wilderness immersion, mentor training, and community service. Each journey cultivates strength, clarity, and contribution—empowering participants to bring what they’ve learned back into their families, organizations, and communities. In this way, Wayfinders becomes a living web of mentorship and service that strengthens the collective whole.
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How we do it
We don’t just lead programs — we deepen relationships and build lasting capacity.
Through partnerships with local nonprofits and generational land stewards, we seed place-based Wayfinders programs that connect people to self, each other, and the earth. Each site from Alaska to Minnesota and beyond —becomes a living network of care—rooted in local culture, ecology, and shared commitment to belonging and hope.
The truth is simple…
I would not be here
without Open Circle.
When I first met Open Circle, I was in a fragile place. I had come undone. I’ve often been in spaces that have asked me to leave parts of myself behind. Open Circle was different. They saw my whole human being. They valued my presence. It was a groundbreaking space where the ways I naturally led finally found a name and a validity. It was a gift.
I wasn’t ask to prove anything.
I was invited to belong.
— Justin Joseph Taylor