Boys to Young Men

About the Program

Category: Parks and Recreation (Best in Category)

Year: 2017

The Boys to Young Men mentoring program started in 2014. With the crime rate in Columbus increasing, we are losing our young men to drugs and violence. The community center resides in an area of high crime and single parent homes. The Boys to Young Men program was developed to assist young men in fatherless homes skills needed to maximize their potential through, educational enrichment, recreational activities, leadership development, and conflict resolution. The program is community based targeted to young men between the ages of 10-14. The participants of the program are identified by partnering schools guidance councilors. By establishing a partnership with the schools administration, we are able to distinguish the students that would harvest the most benefit. 81% of the young men in the program live in father less homes. The young men meet every Monday and Wednesday after school. The sessions start with a group discussion lead by the facilitator where the young men discuss how their day went and share anything they would like to talk about as a whole. Once the circle discussion is over, the group partakes in a 30 min skills session and topic of the day. One of the participants in the program was struggling in and out of school. His mother talked with the program staff on several different occasions about his lack of performance in school, and his behavior problems at home. His mother was scared that her son would eventually end up in prison like his father, or worse because of the crowd he was hanging with. After a semester in the program, not only had his grade improved, but the relationship between his mother has improved. She says that he spends more time at home rather than in the streets, and he even goes to church with her.