Summer Programs > Age 16-18 > Queer Kinnection
Queer Kinnection
Queer Kinnection is a weeklong basecamp experience for LGBTQIA+ young people ages 16–18, designed to facilitate meaningful community-building while immersed in nature. Through day hikes, creative activities, group conversations, and a solo experience, participants can connect with peers who share similar experiences and discover new ways of belonging—to a community, to the natural world, and to themselves.
Program Details
Queer Kinnection
Experience the joy of understanding, belonging and acceptance just as you are. Queer Kinnection is a weeklong basecamp experience for LGBTQIA+ young people ages 16–18, offering time to build friendships, share adventures, and experience the joy of belonging. Through day hikes, creative projects, meaningful conversations, and communal outdoor living, participants get to know one another and themselves in new ways. Together, they create a community where each person’s presence matters and connection grows through the simple, powerful experience of being together.
Belonging takes many forms: feeling seen by others, feeling at home in yourself, and feeling connected to the living world around you. Queer Kinnection makes space to prioritize all of these. The group offers a chance to connect across similarity and difference, and to discover the richness of being part of a community. Time outside invites a different kind of connection, as the pace of everyday life gives way to the rhythms of the natural world.
An extended solo experience (around 24 hours) offers time to soak up that sense of belonging while discovering what can emerge in solitude. Participants return to the group with their own reflections, stories, and experiences to share.
Queer Kinnection is a chance to laugh, explore, be understood, and build connections that can stay with you long after the journey ends.
A note on language: We use the word queer as an inclusive term and an uplifting declaration. We acknowledge that the word has been used in the past as a derogatory term and is still hurtful to some in the LGBTQ2IA+ community. Many have reclaimed the word as an empowering and uniting expression of the many complex identities within the community. If you would like to offer feedback on our use of this term, feel free to Contact Us.
Want more information? Download the Welcome Letter!
At A Glance
Dates Session #1: July 3-9, 2027
Dates Session #2: August 13-19, 2027
Cost: $1495
Duration: 7 days
Who: All-Genders, Age 10-12
Location: Backpacking, Olympic Coast
Quick Links
8 Days
All Genders
Olympic Coast
$1995
Jul 24-31
Meet The Team
2027 Guide Teams
Our guides bring years of experience working with young people. They offer a range of diverse perspectives from across youth education, wilderness, wellbeing, and rite of passage fields.
We pride ourselves on the care and supervision we provide, historically maintaining an average 1:3 guide-to-participant ratio. This means individual attention, stronger relationships, and the support kids need to grow.
Check back in early 2027 to meet the Queer Kinnection guide team!
Sample Itinerary
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Day 1
Participants and families meet at Rite of Passage Journeys basecamp for a gear check and send-off ceremony. In the evening, we’ll spend time with community elders discussing our hopes and fears for the journey ahead.
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Days 2-4
We’ll leave Rite of Passage Journeys basecamp to set up our camp for the week at a new basecamp location. There, we’ll play games, engage in nightly talking circles (aka ‘council’) and take a day trip to a local hike!
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Day 5
We’ll spend today preparing for our solo experiences. We’ll learn all the skills we’ll need to set up our own tarp shelter and stay warm. We’ll also explore the area and pick out our solo spots and discuss expectations with our guides.
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Day 6 & 7
We’ll craft intention statements for who we want to become and venture to our solo spots for an overnight solo experience. When we return, we’ll tell our stories with our guides and peers to witness us.
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Day 8
We’ll return to Rite of Passage Journeys basecamp with stories to tell! Community elders will greet us and sit with us once again. In the afternoon, we’ll greet our families to tell the tales of our journeys.
