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>View discussions about this entry País: United States
Organization: Boys to Men
Year the initative began (yyyy) - 2005
Project URL: http://www.boystomen.info/MaineBoysNetwork.htm
Positioning in the Mosaic of solutions
Describe your program or new idea in one sentence. - The Maine Boys Network promotes the health, successful development and academic aspirations of all boys from pre-adolescence through young adulthood.
What makes your initiative uniquely positioned to create change in your community? - The headlines of major media publications have been blazoned in recent years with controversial questions about boys in America: Why are many of them underachieving academically? Why are some prone to violence and substance abuse? How can we better assess boys’ mental health in order to help them grapple with adolescence? In 2005, piqued by the widespread debate brewing over boys’ wellbeing, Boys to Men Executive Director Layne Gregory convened a faction of activists, educators and academics from Maine to begin formulating local solutions to this national issue. The outcome of their brainstorming was the Maine Boys Network (MBN), a group committed to promoting the health, successful development and academic aspirations of all boys from pre-adolescence through young adulthood. With its extensive offerings of educational forums, a large scale focus group project on boys’ academic success as well as statewide conferences, MBN provides boys and their significant adults with valuable resources, opportunities for advancement and unwavering encouragement.
Describe how you organize and carry out your work? - The strengths of this statewide partnership, initially convened and coordinated by B2M, lie in the expertise and integrity of its membership. Members of the Maine Boys Network include Bates College, Boys to Men, Bowdoin College, Bridgton Academy, Colby College, the Mitchell Institute, Portland Public Schools, The Great Schools Partnership, and the University of Maine at Farmington. While the bulk of MBN’s organizational components are completed by Boys to Men, all of the members share in the responsibilities of conducting educational forums and focus groups as well as contributing to the production of statewide
What is your plan to scale and expand your innovation into your community and beyond? - The Maine Boys Network is a relatively newly established group that anticipates significant growth in coming years. Specifically, the network’s increasing name recognition throughout the state enables it to offer a larger number of Maine communities with the opportunity to either participate in a focus group project aimed at assessing boys’ academic success or attend an educational forum presentation on the subjects of boys’ mental health, images of masculinity, or boys and school performance. The network’s ongoing focus group project on boys’ academic success has already been of particular interest to parents, educators and administrators statewide. It is the goal of the network to hear from 600 elementary, middle, high school, and college-aged male students by the spring of 2008, at which point published research and a conference at Bates College on the subject of boys and academic success will likely further increase the network’s outreach potential.
What other resources, institutional, or policy needs would be necessary to help sustain and scale up your idea? - Generating interest in our initiatives- the Maine Boys Network included- is rarely a problem for Boys to Men. Our conferences are well attended, and our various programs garner attention from boys and their significant adults throughout the state. Unfortunately, the growth of our organization is often thwarted by financial restrictions. We require a more substantial staff in order to meet the demands of widespread enthusiasm for our organization. In a state crowded with countless nonprofit organizations, competition for resources in the form foundational support can be fierce. Significant financial backing would enable Boys to Men to fully expand our organizational capacity, thereby affording us the opportunity to include more boys and young men in our programming.
Describe your impact in one sentence, commenting on both the individual and community levels. - The Maine Boys Network provides parents, educators, school administrators and educational policy makers with the information they need to support boys’ aspirations.
What impact has your work achieved to date? - The Maine Boys Network has had a remarkable impact on communities in Maine during its initial two years of operation. Over 1,000 Maine educators, school administrators, and policy makers have attended a MBN educational forum, and virtually every school that has hosted a forum has subsequently formed a working group to review strategies for improving boys academic success. Many of these schools have also implemented recommendations such as developmental asset scans and assigning mentors to all of the students in a particular school. The network’s focus group project has had a similarly significant impact. To date, over 20 Maine schools have invited MBN to conduct focus groups with their male students. By conducting focus groups at elementary, middle, high schools and colleges throughout the state, MBN gives boys and young men a chance to identify the experiences, relationships and resources that support their academic success. The network was recently invited to present their preliminary findings for this project at the Main School Counselor’s Association Conference.
What measure do you use to gauge your impact and why? - At a foundational level, all Boys to Men programs conform to the social ecological model that identifies risk factors for gender-based violence entrenched in different levels of our environment: individual, relationship, community and society. Based on Centers for Disease Control research, four key assessment areas have been identified: 1) response to workshops and keynote speakers; 2) changes in attitudes about male violence; 3) changes in knowledge about male violence prevention 4) an increase in interest in extra-curricular activities associated with asset development.
How is your initiative currently being financed and how would you finance further expansion and/or replication? - The Maine Boys Network is funded primarily by Boys to Men, which relies on foundation, corporate and individual donor support to maintain program delivery, and by fees it charges for its educational forums. The current cost per forum is $300 plus mileage reimbursement. MBN’s focus group project is conducted entirely free of charge.
Boys to Men regularly receives inquiries from other states in the U.S. regarding franchise and replication. We are currently talking with a foundation about support to develop a business plan that would allow us to make all B2M programs and organizational information available to communities, individuals and organizations interested in establishing a similar program. Provide information on your current finances and organization: - a. annual budget
b. annual revenue c. sources of revenue (please provide percentages if known) d. number of staff (full-time, part-time, and volunteers) Boys to Men’s annual budget for 2008 is $165,704.00. Annual revenue in 2007 was $146,434.51. Sources of Revenue: Number of Staff: Who are your potential partners and allies? - MBN is in and of itself an example of working partnership in action. Each representative from Bates College, Boys to Men, Bowdoin College, Bridgton Academy, Colby College, the Mitchell Institute, Portland Public Schools, The Great Schools Partnership, and the University of Maine at Farmington adds a crucial piece to the network’s operation and sustainability.
Who are your potential investors? - Our potential and current investors are present throughout the community. We partner with representatives from all sectors: public, private and non profit. These investors also include members of the groups we work with: boys, families, fathers, mothers, youth-serving professionals other community members concerned with how boys are faring. They invest their time, talent and treasure to supporting the healthy nonviolent development of boys.
What is the origin of this innovation? Tell us your story. - In 2005, Boys to Men Executive Director Layne Gregory was profoundly impressed by an interview with Tom Mortenson of the Postsecondary Education Opportunity Institute she heard on National Public Radio. Gregory had been engaged with the issue of boys academic underachievement for some time, but she had rarely heard such a compelling and informed speaker share so much useful information on the subject. Eager to invite Mortenson to Maine for a public event, Gregory enlisted the expertise of contacts from Bates, Bowdoin, and Colby Colleges to form a preliminary planning group. The group’s first conference, held in April of 2006, was an overwhelming and unexpected success. Attendance rates were remarkably high, and the majority of post-conference evaluations pleaded for more information about how to support boys academically. Invigorated by public enthusiasm over the issue, Gregory and her team worked to create a group infrastructure by establishing core values and concocting a permanent title: The Maine Boys Network. The network has been meeting regularly ever since and continues to expand based on perceived need and capacity. As the Maine Boys Network evolves, all members maintain the belief that the voices of boys and young men should inform and be included in its programming.
Please provide a personal bio. Note this may be used in Changemakers marketing material. - I am a Social Worker and began with B2M in 1998. I worked for the Portland-Public-Health-Department for nine years running the Family Violence Prevention Programs. Completing Simmons College School of Social Work in 1984, I’ve since worked in the areas of substance abuse and family violence prevention at Tufts New England Medical Center, Harvard University’s Judge Baker Children’s Center and the Maine Medical Center. I teach part-time at the Boston College Graduate School of Social Work and am the mother of two boys.
Contact Information:
Layne Gregory
Boys to Men Executive Director Boys to Men (nonprofit) Discussions about this entry
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HI....................
This Maine Boys Network is like a placement guidance to every students.These thoughtful questions help the students to move forward in their career.I too got more information .
Thanks...!!!
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lara
maine drug rehab
The Maine boys’ network is the one provides solution to the problem of the students who wants proper guidance for their further study i want to know about its source of power
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johnsmith
Addiction Recovery Maine
Hi Layne, You mention a great list of colleges and universities that you are working with. What exactly do these colleges do? Thanks!
Dana Frasz
Changemakers
Hi Dana,
Each of the members in the Maine Boys Network takes an active role in all our programming. The College representatives are steering committee members, they provide workshops around the state, help plan and produce state wide conferences, raise in-kind and financial support, run focus groups, train students to run focus groups and will be tabulating the focus group data and compiling the final report. Several also hope to publish the focus group data.
Thanks for your thoughtful questions. Please let me know if you desire more information.
Layne