The month of January celebrates the 20th Annual National Mentoring Month, a month-long campaign centered around the importance of mentorship. The campaign celebrates the positive impact mentoring can have on young lives with the goals of raising awareness, recruiting individuals to become mentors, and recruiting organizations to engage in mentoring.
Boys to Men Mentoring has shown the effectiveness of mentorship for the past 25 years in San Diego County, across the United States, and all over the world. In San Diego alone, Boys to Men has supported over 10,000 boys over the years. The Boys to Men method provides a group forum where the boys and men go around the room and discuss their problems and challenges. The mentors contribute by sharing the mistakes and poor choices they had made as teenagers and using their experience to help boys avoid similar mistakes. Our mentors come from all walks of life and various backgrounds to share their experiences with the boys. The impact that our mentors have on the boys is shown through their improved academic success, social and emotional intelligence, and directional shifts in their lives.
Being a mentor for Boys to Men is guided by principles that create trust and support for boys.
- We build communities of men who model what it takes to be a good man.
- We do not tell the boys how to be good men; we show them by example.
- We do not give lectures. We simply tell boys how, when we were teenagers, we dealt with the very same issues they face. We also share the lessons we learned and, in turn, the price we paid for our mistakes.
- We create trust by telling the truth about our struggles as men, giving the boys permission to talk about the struggles they face on their journey to manhood.
- We praise boys for their unique gifts and support them when they screw up.
- We ask boys what kind of man they want to be and encourage and support them on their journey to become that good man.
As we celebrate National Mentoring Month, we feel honored to reflect on the thousands of lives that have been transformed by our mentors. Boys to Men could not support the boys and communities across San Diego County if it weren’t for our devoted volunteer mentors. If helping grow communities of male role models that encourage and empower teenage boys to follow their dreams sounds like something you’re interested in, email our Mentor Coordinator Francisco Munguia at francisco@boystomen.org or call our office at 619-469-9599.