About YMUW - The Organization
YMUW History
The Young Men's Ultimate Weekend was founded by Dr. Mark Schillinger in 2000. Mark was inspired by Brad Leslie who started a weekend mentoring program for young men in Vancouver, Canada in 1990. Mark took his son to this program and when he returned he knew he needed help raising his son as a single-parent. He put out a call for help in the Bay Area and with the commitment and cooperation of dozens of caring mothers, fathers, and mentors, the YMUW 501(c)3 Public Benefit Corporation was established.
At our first Young Men's Ultimate Weekend in Fairfax California, over 200 young men showed up to receive their initiation. Expecting possibly a few dozen young men, that experience turned out to be an initiation for the board members and their volunteer mentors as well! Since that event, YMUW initiations have been held in Seattle, Portland, Sacramento, Sonoma, San Jose, Los Angeles and San Diego.
In addition to our own programs, YMUW has made notable contributions to other organizations as well. In 2002-2003, under the guidance of Steven Smulewitz, Jim March and Mitch DeArmon, our volunteers built a log cabin home on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota for Grandpa Chipps, a descendant of the medicine man for Chief Crazy Horse. In 2003 Corey McKinley, lead our volunteers in a restoration project at the shelter of the Marin Abused Women's Services. Later that year, Alan Hill organized volunteers and traveled to the California Youth Authority in Stockton California, presenting an unforgettable mentoring program for incarcerated young men. In 2004, we hosted Operation Elf, which collected and delivered holiday presents to families in need.
In May, 2006 we had our most profitable fundraiser at the Marin Civic Center through the efforts of Steve Fox and his staff. This windfall allowed us to hire the public relations firm, Kathleen Russell Consulting. In October, with the collaboration of Dr. Schillinger and Richard Platt, LMFT, we began our weekly mentoring program for young men. To realize our goal of spreading YMUW throughout the country, we added our first affiliate, YMUW of South Bay in November, 2006!
YMUW Philosophy & The Right Way® method
All of our programs feature the RIGHT Way®, a simple method that shows people how to unlock stagnant thinking and establish effective actions to move toward greater personal fulfillment and professional success. It shows you how to discover, develop and master your true virtues, values, beliefs and behaviors in your work and your life. It is a powerful tool for creating philosophical and practical transformation.
The RIGHT Way® can be successfully used by individuals, families, and organizations and is founded on these 4 principles:
- people are innately intelligent and don't need to strive for happiness
- people who honestly voice what is true for them do not need to offend others or defend themselves
- people living with integrity respect themselves, others, the earth, and the universe
- people can accomplish anything when they share their resources
The phrase “Honor what is RIGHT” contains the acronym R.I.G.H.T. which stands for these values:
- Respect — esteeming yourself and others in the highest regard
- Intelligence — using your experience and intuition to make the right decisions
- Gallantry (men) — acting with courtesy and courage
Grace (women) — acting with courtesy and courage
- Humor — celebrating with joy in easy and hard times
- True — living with integrity to trust yourself and others
Ultimately, it is the belief of YMUW that there is not only one right way to do things or to be fulfilled. There is only your RIGHT Way, and that's to live with integrity by remaining true yourself. The certainty that comes from trusting that everything you're doing and thinking is RIGHT for you leads to greater physical health, increased mental clarity and deeper spiritual well-being.
YMUW Mission
To mentor young men to live life with integrity, to give and get respect, to master their energy, and to interact with their family and community by modeling honorable, confident behaviors so that they can become responsible and moral adults.
Leading young men to discover their passion and develop their Purpose
