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\nMichael Burns, MDI member and veteran of the menswork movement, has spent six years as a mentor for the Boys To Men mentoring program, a national organization which empowers young men in need. He shares his perspective and includes the words of a program developer in the Northern California area. A fundraising page for this chapter of Boys To Men, through Burns, is found here: https:\/\/secure.qgiv.com\/event\/btmnorcal2024\/account\/1897005\/<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
If I had been in a Boys To Men Mentoring Program <\/strong>(B2M) <\/strong>from 6th to 12th grades I would have begun consciously discovering myself years before I did emerge from the cocoon. That would happen because:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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- B2M provides a consistent safe place to acknowledge, express, and explore emotions.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- The team atmosphere of a B2M group would give me courage and confidence in honestly relating to peers, as well as with adult males.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Awareness to what my male classmates were experiencing would have shown me that I wasn\u2019t so isolated in my perception that I was the \u201codd guy out.”<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- B2M mentoring provides opportunities to stretch into roles of leadership, and learn how to support the other boys in their victories and defeats.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Had I been mentored by mature men once a week throughout my school years, I would have more tools to self regulate my decision making and, hence, my growth.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
In basic terms, how would my life be different if I had started participating in a B2M circle as a boy? My answer is that I would have become a mature, masculine, contented, successful man sooner! But the necessity of the Boys to Men Mentoring Program <\/strong>isn\u2019t for those few boys who find their own way to mature masculinity; it is for the vast majority of boys who would never find their way without the mentoring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Please give some consideration to supporting a community service project that, in my opinion, can be the foundation for making our society whole again. Read the following vision of a man – Christopher Love, B2M Program Developer – who is all about serving humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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