What is the Boys to Men weekend?
Our boys and Mentors spend more time together on this weekend than a typical mentor program provides in six months. Each day has a specific intention:
Friday: WHO I AM NOW?
Saturday:  WHO DO I WANT TO BE?
Sunday: CHOOSING THE MAN I WILL BECOME
This 3-day training is led by experienced facilitators and trained staff, and provides a 2:1 ratio of men to boys. During the weekend, boys are challenged and supported through a series of carefully facilitated activities designed to bring out their feelings in a safe way. This creates a powerful experience that helps boys cope with the ordeals they will face during adolescence. They learn about integrity. They bond with a tribe. They learn about mission and service. This weekend is a life-changing experience boys never forget.

How many boys have gone through the Boys to Men Program?
Nationally over 3,300. This weekend has an exponential effect on the boy’s family, friends, schoolmates and community at large.

Do you have any religious affiliations?
No, BTM has no religious affiliation or religious teachings. We support each boy’s individual spiritual tradition and journey.

What is the age group you work with?
Boys between the age of 12 and 17 are eligible.

How are Mentors selected?
Through a background check and interview.  After that the mentor is allowed to be a part of the mentor group and is then scheduled for the next available one-day training program or mini-workshop. 

Is this only for fatherless boys?
The BTM program helps boys become better men. All boys need more good men in their lives, even those who have good fathers.

How are you different from Big Brothers?
Big Brothers only offers one on one mentoring. The BTM program is based on group mentoring, and offeres experiential mentor training, boys adventure weekend (rite of passage), and bi-weekly follow up activities for our boys and mentors.

What is your goal with each individual boy?

Our goal is to help each boy gain an empowered sense of himself and to help him discover the man they want to be.  We help each boy help themselves to get what they need.

How does this program hope to positively influence their lives?
The main component of our program is honesty and truth. We go to great length to allow the boys to feel safe and supported. When a young man can be completely honest about what is going on in his life, when he can truthfully see how his behavior is affecting him and those around him, he then can take ownership and responsibility and begin to make choices that produce results that better serve him.

How do boys usually hear about your program?
Mostly word of mouth. We constantly receive calls from single moms seeking help for their teenage boys.  Other sources are social services programs, schools,  and mens organizations.

How many of these boys come back to become Mentors?
After one year we usually have about 75% of the boys that have gone through the program still engaged. Typically those boys will staff the following years BTM training. They mentor by being an example. By showing and letting the new guys know that they are safe. They are mentors by being courageous, honest and vulnerable.

How do you train your mentors?
We developed a powerful training that takes men back to their teen years by sharing teenage stories, revealing teenage secrets, and remembering the glory, discovery and difficulty of those years. This process of “reclaiming their teenager” gives men a new perspective about teenage boys.

Mentors are taught how to listen, accept, and encourage young men they will mentor.  They are discouragd from trying to fix, rescue, and advise.

This training not only trains mentors,  it also helps men grow and become better men.

We also offer a mini-workshop series on working with and relating to teenage boys.  These workshops are intended to keep men aware of issues that come up while mentoring, and through role-play and group communication, the mentors have the opportunity to gain higer levels of confidence.

Why do boys need this program?
Adolescence is a critical time when young men are faced with choices that affect them for the rest of their lives. Boys naturally look towards men to challenge, guide, and help them become good men. The sad fact is too many young men do not have good men to look up to. They are left to figure out manhood alone. Fatherless families, overcrowded prisons, increasing gang violence, and drug and alcohol abuse are often the result.

Where do you have BTM locations?
In addition to Atlanta, Boys to Men trainings and mentoring groups are offered in the following areas:

Ashland, OR
Asheville, NC
Central California Coast
Chicago
Denver
Detroit
Houston
New England
Northern California
New York Metro & Northern NJ
Phoenix
Prescott, AZ
Portland, OR
Rochester, NY
San Diego
Santa Fe
Sedona, AZ
Sioux City, IA
St. Louis
Washington, DC

Outside the U.S.:

Canada West
Cape Town, South Africa
Hamburg, Germany
Johannesburg, South Africa
Montreal

Mentor Questions

What is my job description as a mentor?
A mentor is a personal ally and supporter. A mentor is not a teacher or surrogate parent. Some young men think of them as uncles or big brothers.  In Boys to Men we expect mentors to listen to the boys and to accept and repsect them just as they are.  We encourage modeling healthy behavior.  We discourage trying to fix, rescue, and advise.

What is the time commitment?
Each man makes his own commitment.  Our groups meet twice a month for a couple hours (longer for some of our large fun events).  Basically that comes down to 4-6 hours a month.  That's what we ask for from each man.  If he cannot give it, then we ask him what he can give.

Is there training for me?
BTM is proud to offer what we believe is among the finest possible training available to help our mentors be ready to be with their boys in a good way. In our Mentor Training Weekend, “Reclaiming the Teenage Fire”, you’ll get a gift that you’ll treasure for the rest of your life. First we’ll take you back into your own hopes, fears, dreams, and experiences of adolescence. We’ll help you identify your own strengths and style of mentoring, and of course we’ll share what we know about how to be with boys.

We also offer a mini-workshop series that will help you to work with and relate to teenage boys.

What happens on the Boys’ Adventure Passage Weekend?
We need men to staff the Boys’ Rite of Passage Training Adventure weekends. There are games, activities, discussion circles, challenge events, and celebrations of victory. We’ll share the full agenda for the weekend with parents you come with your boy to register. We won’t tell the boys the specifics of the agenda since it would dilute the effectiveness of the processes. Integrated into the team & skill building we have opportunities for personal sharing amongst the boys. Often the boys open up their deep issues to find acceptance, witnessing, and support. At the end they are celebrated for their successes and asked to commit to their own path to manhood in a powerful way.

What’s next for Boys after the weekend?
Any young man who has completed his Passage Adventure Weekend is called a Journeyman. We need men to be one of our group mentors at ongoing activities that include fun events, social service, and skill building. The one-to-one matches can be made on weekends, at activities or in a more private setting. Mentors are invited to attend activities as their boys and they are interested. Mentors who commit to spending more time are asked to have their own activities and phone relationships with their new mentees. Boys to Men has a mentor support person who will call you periodically to see how it’s going and offer options & support.