Mission
History
Board Members
Staff |
Our History
In 1998, the Portland Family Violence Collaborative, a group
of municipal and community leaders long active in addressing
family and community violence, made a bold decision to become
involved in outreach to young men.
Hoping to support positive, non-violent male
development, the Collaborative pulled together educators,
health care experts, representatives from leading non-profits,
members
of the business community, parents, and, of course, boys
themselves.
Through a yearlong process of research
and discussion, this new committee determined that as a
first step, an annual
conference should be the centerpiece of the group’s
efforts. This conference would:
- Focus on supporting boys in their
transition to becoming men.
- Offer boys a chance to explore
the pressures and mixed messages that bombard them
with violent and distorted
images of masculinity, images that tell them to stifle
emotion, and that suggest they aspire to one particular
image of how
they should act and how they should treat others.
- Recognize and celebrate the many
ways of being male.
- Facilitate the healthy involvement of adult males
in boys’ lives.
Further, the committee decided the conference would have
two primary audiences:
- Middle and high school aged boys, because
that is the point in a boy’s development where
they become most susceptible to societal and cultural
messaging.
- Fathers and adult male mentors, because
most boys do not hear anti-violence messages and alternatives
ways
of being male from the men in their lives – even
though studies show that adolescent boys are most responsive
to
these messages when they hear it from adult males they
most respect.
The first Boys to Men conference was
held on November 3, 2000 and conferences have since been
presented annually.
On every level, each Boys to Men conference has been an unequivocal
and overwhelming success. Between 250 and 450 boys and their
fathers or mentors have attended each Boys to Men conference.
The conference is so unique, effective and one-of-a-kind
that schools from all over the state – even as far
away as Calais – have been sending buses of kids to
attend. Some years, due to space constraints, we have had
to turn away as many people as we could accept.
Even more important than the sheer numbers of those attending
is the type of audience the conference attracts. Attendees
come from every conceivable background: rich and poor,
rural and urban, white and black, gay and straight, high-risk
kids and high achievers, boys living in wealthy suburbs
and boys living in shelters.
Encouraged by the persistent requests and prodding of community
leaders and conference attendees, the Boys to Men Steering
Committee made the exciting decision to become a nonprofit
organization and provide programming to support the healthy
development of boys year-round. In April, 2004, Boys to Men
became incorporated in the state of Maine and in November
of 2004, we received our 501(c) 3 tax status from the Federal
Government.
In its first year as an
organization, B2M continues to show boys there are varying
paths to being a man, and has raised
critically important issues that no one else is addressing
through a variety of expanded programs. While we continue
to hold our annual conference, other programs have been
added to the menu of offerings. These include:
- Multi-session
asset-building workshops for adolescent boys and their
fathers and adult mentors.
Topics have included
cooking, guitar making, Hip Hop Music recording,
Television Studio Crew Training, Break dancing and
Cartooning
- Monthly Televised
Community Forums. In partnership with Maine Medical Center
and the Spring
Harbor Hospital, B2M produces
a monthly TV program, called Raising Boys to Men,
to explore important developmental issues facing boys
and the adults
who raise them. Topics include: Mentoring, Being
a Single Parent of Boys, the Role of Athletics in the
lives of
Boys, Being a Boy in a Family Facing Divorce and Separation, and
more.
- Quarterly Email Newsletter. Now boasting
a mailing list of over one thousand, each issue carries
the voices of
young and adult men focused upon growing up male today. With each
issue centered upon a unique theme, personal accounts
and perspectives are given and community resources shared.
-
Increasing Boys’ College Aspirations Project- In partnership
with Bowdoin and Colby Colleges, the University
of Southern Maine, the Mitchell Institute and Portland Public
Schools,
B2M is coordinating a statewide forum to increase
awareness of boys’ academic underachievement and to
highlight best practice models for supporting their academic
success.
- School-based, Youth-driven Media
Literacy project- In conjunction with Hardy Girls Healthy
Women, Maine Coalition Against
Sexual Assault and Adverb Productions, B2M is coordinating a project
to develop a curriculum to help adolescent
boys and girls explore, address and repel the sexist
and violent messages
contained in popular culture and music.
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For the past three years, our school
has sent some of our male students to the Boys to Men
conference. I have seen first-hand how the conference
makes a difference in these boys’ lives, most
especially for our boys at risk.
Bruce Spang, Vice Principal, Scarborough Middle School |
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