Boys to Men

How male mentoring is changing the lives of boys

Article by Philip W. Cook: Philip W. Cook is the Secretary/Treasurer of the Global Initiative For Boys and Men. A former radio and television news director, he is the author of several published non-fiction books, and peer-reviewed journal articles in publications such as The Journal for Human Behavior in the Social Environment. He occasionally serves as an expert witness in court cases and is the author of the much acclaimed Abused Men: The Hidden Side of Domestic Violence.

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Boys to Men Mentoring Program (BTM) is the first article in a series about the effectiveness of male mentoring programs.

• Do they work to improve grades and school attendance and reduce discipline problems?

• Do they reduce drug use?

• If so, how do they work, how do they sustain such programs and how do they recruit the students and the adult mentors?

California’s Boys to Men program currently operates in thirty schools in California and is expanding. Teachers and administrators have been very supportive of the program that began operating in 1996. Primarily relying on volunteers (adult mentors who must pass a criminal background check) and donations, the program does have some staff trainers who teach the adult male mentors listening and other skills. They even have a training session called “Reclaiming Your Teenage Fire.”  The trainings emphasize three main precepts — Listen, Accept, and Encourage.

The program asserts that they have data showing improved grades, better attendance, and fewer discipline problems. Approval from the students themselves shows that better than ninety percent of group attendees felt that the program

• “Positively changed how they view the future.”

• “Made them feel better about themselves.”

• “Helped them do better in school.”

Boys to Men concentrates on one hour weekly sessions at schools with teenage boys, and they also have three day retreats during non-school days that features camping, surfing, and other outdoor activities that reward skills. Leadership skills, for example, are rewarded with football games and fishing trips.

Peer group-activities are a hallmark of the program. With an emphasis on boys learning from themselves, teaching each other, and encouraging good habits and healthy emotions, boys learn to take ownership of themselves and be actively engaged with helping others.

The programs are designed to create safe spaces for boys and mentors to develop positive and healthy relationships built on “honesty, consistency and accountability.” BTM has been adopted in over seventeen cities throughout the United States and over nine international cities in Canada, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

Boys to Men and University of San Diego Study

A study by the University of San Diego found the program to be well supported by teachers, administrators, parents and student participants.

Perhaps most insightful, 100% of parents strongly agree other schools should have Boys to Men programs on their campus.

“It definitely makes a difference in the climate at school. This is a group of boys who would probably just be getting in trouble and causing issues at school. So it affects the school climate in general. I think it’s also carrying it into the community in terms of these boys and what they do when they go home, or don’t do.” - School Counselor.

The University of San Diego study reached the following conclusions:

“As researchers, learning that a school and mentoring nonprofit had teamed up to work smarter in times of strapped resources had us wanting a closer look. Investigating the efficacy and reporting the findings of partnerships like the BTM/middle school collaboration underscores how reciprocal partnerships are established and encourages others to pursue similar collaborations and programming. Furthermore, this partnership offered mutual benefits for both organizations. The school benefitted by enhancing its services beyond what could normally be provided by the school counselor, and the BTM organization was able to increase access to its target population: at risk boys.

While this study elucidated several of the structures and workings of the collaboration, it also documented the efficacy of the BTM mentoring approach. Many of the boys within this study were coping with multiple compounding risk factors: The same risk factors that research shows are related to dropping out or incarceration.

The case study findings indicated that program participants were able to improve academic performance, behavior, and relationships with adults. These results, taken into context with the challenges associated with this population, should spark a sense of hope and urgency in implementing similar partnerships and programming within other high need schools. Based upon these findings and factors, we highly recommend investing in the further development, research and evaluation of the BTM organization and its partner schools.”

The team of researchers are affiliated with the Counseling Program Department of School, Family, and Mental Health Professions School of Leadership and Education Sciences (SOLES) University of San Diego.

A video interview by Young Voices TV with the founders of the Boys to Men program is available here: Young Voices TV Interviews.

In future articles Philip Cook will be taking a look at other kinds of boys and young men mentoring and support programs that have measurable success rates.