ABOUT: The Boys to Men Mentoring Network

The Boys to Men model is based on a proven and successful program that actually starts with the mentor. We have discovered that men are not only the key but also the most hesitant players in the program. Because of a number of reasons (general fear, time commitments, not wanting to deal with teenagers) men were reluctant to join the program. Consequently, we set out to develop a program that addressed this need. It has evolved into a unique and highly successful three-part program:

MORE: About The Trainings

Boys To Men developed an intensive 48-hour mentor training program to provide mentors with the skills they need listen, accept, admire, and respond to these young men for who they are.

We then developed a dramatic, life-changing weekend initiation experience, where the boys are challenged to look at what is working and not working in their lives. Throughout this weekend, they learn to trust themselves and one another, as well as the staff that support them through the process.

The results of our program have created a dramatic effect on these young men. (Click here to learn more) They are learning skills that make them leaders among their peers. They are taking a risk by being different, telling the truth, and sharing their feelings. And perhaps most important, their new behavior gives those around them - their friends, family and community - permission to do the same.

BOYS: Adventure Weekend

Boys to Men

provides boys with a “rite of passage” adventure weekend where positive qualities such as integrity, courage, respect, passion, and leadership are modeled by adult male staff.

Additionally, many of our Journeymen (boys who have completed the Rite of Passage Weekend) volunteer to staff and assist the new boys entering the program.

Through a series of carefully facilitated processes, each boy discovers something of the scope of his own humanity. Boys are challenged and supported in new ways, and find that they can respond in new ways. They find their own integrity, courage, respect, passion, and leadership and they discover that they can access these qualities and put them to work.

It is an exhilarating, life-changing experience that many boys say they will never forget.

Boys to Men

Trainings take place in remote locations around the Chicago area.

The boys arrive on a Friday night and leave mid-day Sunday. During the weekend, they are paired with a mentor who will then spend time during the weekand also bring the boy to the bi-weekly gatherings held in various locations in the Chicagoland area.

Transition in a wild or primitive setting

The isolation of the natural setting removes participants from the routines and patterns of their lives so that they can “re-create” themselves. They have the opportunity to let go of old patterns that might no longer serve them. They start fresh, discover new, more mature qualities, and learn and adopt new responsibilities and roles.

The participant has an opportunity to reflect on their new status and to adjust to the enormous changes, which can be exciting, scary, challenging, and confusing all at once. The participant’s time away gives the community time to adjust to the changes as well. When the participant returns as a “journeyman,” the community is also ready to accept him as changed, as a new member of society.

MORE: About Initiations

For countless centuries, it was the task of the older men in the community to 'take' the boys out of the arms of their mothers and teach them how to be a man.

Somewhere along the way, older men in our world lost touch with their calling to steward the young men in the community. As a result, the youth of today have developed their own forms of initiation. The levels of these initiations run the gamut, from something as simple as skateboarding competitions to teen-violence and gang activity.

The young men in the community are crying out for adult role-models, mature, well-developed men who will make time for these boys as they travel their "Journey Into Manhood". This period of a young man's life is filled with uncertainty and fear. With the help of an adult man who sees him for who he is, the young man can become more conscious of his world...and of of the tremendous potential that is awakening inside his being.