Making Men Through Mentoring
Our boys and young men are struggling to make it.
What are we going to do about it?
We have been wrestling with that question in North Lawndale. Through a coordinated community effort, we engaged the parents, educators, local business owners, police officers, politicians, youth, elders, and other invested community residents. Through community collaboration and United Way resources, we initiated Making Men Through Mentoring (M3) — a program serving 120 African-American males, ages 10-16, in North Lawndale. Young Men’s Educational Network and Lawndale Christian Health Center coordinate this effort with six additional community partners. M3 is an answer to that question – we will use group mentoring to make men.
Who are the collaborators?
Making Men through Mentoring is a North Lawndale-based collaboration between:
- Lawndale Christian Health Center,
- Lawndale Community Church,
- North Lawndale College Preparatory High School,
- St. Gregory Episcopal School,
- Strategic Human Services,
- The United Way of Metropolitan Chicago, and the
- Young Men’s Educational Network.
How it works
M3 works through once-per-week small group mentoring sessions and through bi-monthly workshops. The workshops bring together the entire community of mentees for training in one of our five outcome areas – work ethic, academics, life skills, safety and leadership. The weekly sessions help develop camaraderie and positive peer pressure, reinforcing the training.
Our goal
We will grow leaders. In helping our youth achieve academically, we address the school dropout rate; in helping them choose safe environments and sharpen life skills we decrease the homicide rate; and in developing leadership and a strong work ethic in our participants, we will reverse the cycles of unemployment and generational poverty and begin a new path toward stability and wealth. We will build men who stand up for themselves, their families and their communities.
How you can support
We welcome volunteers, business sponsors, workshop leaders, inspiring speakers, parents, mentors and virtually anyone else who is invested in making men. Gifts of time, money and prayer are greatly appreciated.
Call Marcus Thorne, Director of Mentoring, at (773) 522-9636 for more information.
Recent Updates
- YMEN Africa Trip, Spring 2013
- “This is the greatest trip of my life…..” Four YMEN High School senior leaders spent 13 days this Spring traveling to Uganda to work with Partners in Mission. During this trip, we had the opportunity to spend time at the Kamwenge Secondary and Vocational School (KSVS) where YMEN has roofed buildings, sponsored students, and brought [...] Read More
- Building lifelong networks of support
- Sammie has been in the YMEN program for 4 years. He is one of the program’s most dedicated participants. YMEN has offered Sammie many opportunities through business and education programs. Sammie has been on about 90% of the YMEN trips and his favorite was South Dakota. The trips have been beneficial for Sammie because he [...] Read More
- The Gimp
- Our students have had a chance to learn about image manipulation. Seeing as how we are always in the mood to save money, we use the GNU Image Manipulation Program — otherwise known as the Gimp. For those who aren’t completely up on the Gimp, it’s a free version of Adobe Photoshop-like software. Not Photoshop, [...] Read More
