Be part of the solution — join the movement to reduce the Boy Crisis by helping boys do better in your home, your school, and your community.
Here, you can connect with our Reader’s Forum Facebook Group feed, an interactive place for you to share your stories, questions, and photos, and dialogue not only about the crisis but also solutions from the book that have worked for you, or fresh ideas you’d like to bring to the table. Highlights from the Group are featured here — we want to hear from you!
We’ve also gathered a list of other resources for you, including organizations and activists that change boys’ lives for the better. Whether you are a parent, policymaker, educator, mentor, or volunteer, jump in here!
As Dr. Farrell writes in The Boy Crisis, while the best parent is both parents, it doesn’t take both parents—or even one parent—for a boy to experience a role model of a caring man. Programs like the ones listed below are especially useful for single moms or female same-sex parents, because keeping your son consistently connected with male role models is essential. Sending your son to a mentoring or rite-of-passage-type program is generally a life-enhancing experience for an already motivated boy, and often a turnaround experience for a boy who is rudderless, angry, or electronically addicted.
- ManKind Project (MKP) – a global, non-religious, and inclusive network of nonprofit organizations, with a presence in over 21 nations. MKP is the most widespread and well-tested rite-of-passage program Dr. Farrell espouses in The Boy Crisis; their signature program is the New Warrior Training Adventure. MKP has also formed small groups of Men Mentoring Men, in which young men learn communication, relationship, and conflict-resolution skills. The groups foster no-bs, empathetic-but-honest bonding, rather than bonding by hazing or bonding by creating in-and out-groups. Also be sure to check out MKP’s regional community contacts list.
- New Warrior Training Adventure – Designed by MKP to immerse young men in a series of outdoor adventure experiences. The bonding and sense of camaraderie emanates from participants experiencing the best of traditional masculine values of service and courage without the facades of strength that have typically been men’s weakness. The program encourages authenticity and emotional intelligence.
- Boy Scouts – A powerful source of hope for boys deprived of dads. Read more about the seven ways the Boy Scouts Channels Boys’ energy and develop character in The Boy Crisis.
- Cub Scouts – the more time kids spend in Scouting, the better the outcomes in character development. Scouts are more likely to embrace positive social values than non-Scouts.
- Dad Camp – when a father is strong, his family is strong, and when families are strong, communities are strong. After 10 years, DADCamp believes it has found an effective way to reach a man’s heart – through his kids.
- Trail Life USA – a nation-wide Christian outdoor adventure, leadership, and character development ministry.
- YMCA / The Y – strengthening communities through worldwide youth development, healthy living, and social responsibility since 1844. Read more in The Boy Crisis about Dr. Farrell’s personal experiences with the Y.
- Boys Clubs of America – for more than a century, Boys Clubs has helped put young people on the path to better futures by helping them reach their full potential as productive, caring, responsible citizens.
- Positive Coaching Alliance (PCA) – develops better athletes and better people through resources for youth and high school sports coaches, parents, administrators and student-athletes. In addition to 1,500+ free audio-video and printable tips and tools at www.PCADevZone.org, PCA has partnered with roughly 3,500 schools and youth sports organizations nationwide to deliver live group workshops, online courses and books by PCA Founder Jim Thompson that help those involved in youth and high school sports create a positive, character-building youth sports culture. Read more about the importance of coaches in addition to what new conversations we should be having about sports and our sons in The Boy Crisis, especially in Chapters 12 and 16.
- My Brother’s Keeper Alliance – No demographic groups are in greater jeopardy than African American and Native American boys and young men. My Brother’s Keeper Alliance, formed by President Obama in 2015 with funding from private sources, focuses on their needs. If your son qualifies, it is an opportunity made for him. The program’s goals include mentorship or support “from cradle to career.”
- A Band of Brothers (ABOB) – This UK-based program works with young men involved in the criminal justice system, providing them with the support they need to transition to an adulthood free of crime, and full of connection, purpose, and meaning. Their Quest Programme and 2-day adult course, Beyond the Hero, are great ways/places to get involved.
- Young Men’s Ultimate Weekend (Marin County, CA) – focuses on outdoor adventure, team building, social skills, spiritual values, connection to nature, and the transmission of values such as responsibility and service to others. Young Men’s Ultimate Weekend also offers simultaneous courses for parents to help them capitalize on the growth their son experiences during the program.
- Ever Forward Club (Oakland, CA) – this organization focuses on community, family, academic, and personal development through team building, local service projects, mentorship, goal-setting workshops, and much more. Featured in The Mask You Live In documentary by The Representation Project.
- Rite of Passage Journeys: Wilderness Programs (including Mountain Quest) (Seattle, WA) – summer youth programs for ages 8-18, led by a team of experienced wilderness mentors for young people to safely experience physical challenges, interpersonal self-reliance, responsibility, and conflict resolution. Mountain Quest works with sixth-grade girls and boys to create a safe environment to share and process their feelings in real time. Their all-male program uses ceremony and initiation rites to lend the program a timeless, archetypal spirit, while encouraging comfort with “letting loose” and being goofy and exuberant. They also offer Queer Mountain Quest, a two-week nature-based adventure, community, mentoring, and rite-of-passage for LGBTQ youth.
- Young Men’s Adventure Weekend (Vancouver, B.C., Canada) – since 1990, this program focuses on challenge, mentorship, and acknowledgement as well as on outdoor adventure, team building, social skills, spiritual values, connection to nature, and the transmission of values such as responsibility and service to others.
- The Steve Harvey Mentoring Program for Young Men (SHMP) (Atlanta, GA) – Since 2009, this program and Atlanta-based mentoring camp helps young men realize their potential and envision and prepare for a strong, productive future. SHMP aims to break the misguided traits of manhood and introduce positive role models who provide positive examples of manhood.
- Coalition to Create a White House Council on Boys and Men (WHCBM) – a multi-partisan Commission of thirty-four nationally-known scholars and practitioners identifying five main components of a nationwide crisis facing boys and men. The WHCBM proposes White House-level coordination and prioritization to handle different components of the crisis through short-term investment, long-term savings, quality-of-life savings, and timing. Dr. Warren Farrell serves as Chairman to the WHCBM.
- Experience Corps (AARP Foundation) — an inter-generational, volunteer-based tutoring program that is proven to help children who aren’t reading at grade level become great readers by the end of third grade. The Experience Corps inspires and empowers adults age 50 and older to serve in their community and disrupt the cycle of poverty by making a lasting difference in the lives of America’s most vulnerable children. A volunteer- and community-based answer to #TheBoyCrisis of education.
- National Fatherhood Initiative (NFI) – This Maryland-based organization equips you with the knowledge, skills, and resources to effectively engage fathers in their children’s lives. Offers fatherhood programs, strategic planning, stats, and free resources.
- National At-Home Dad Network — Providing support, education and advocacy for fathers who are the primary caregivers of their children. The network also hosts the annual HomeDadCon, aka At-Home Dads Convention, which brings primary caregiver dads together from across the country for professional development as dads who embrace parenting as their most important job, to network with other active and involved dads…and for a well-deserved chance to
- National Center for the Development of Boys — a research and resource non-profit organization that helps educators, counselors, parents, and others who work with boys to understand more deeply the ways in which boys develop, learn, and grow, as well as the challenges and opportunities boys face.
- The Good Men Project — explores the world of men and manhood by tackling the issues and questions that are most relevant to men’s lives; writes about fatherhood, family, sex, ethics, war, gender, politics, sports, pornography, and aging. Their content reflects the multidimensionality of men, and challenges confining cultural notions of what a “real man” must be. Some have called it a glimpse of what enlightened masculinity might look like in the 21st century.
- Good Dads – begun by business leaders in Springfield, Missouri, Good Dads recognizes the impact of father absence on child well-being and came together for the purpose of supporting engaged fathers. They understand the value in helping fathers become more engaged with their children; welcome the chance to promote father involvement in a way that benefits them, their customers and their community; and appreciate the potential to provide leadership in ways unique to their position. Good Dads aims to engage fathers by integrating the local business community and providing fatherhood resources and events to make fathers the best they can be. Through partnerships they aim to invest in their community by investing in fathers.
- Dads4Kids – An Australia-based Father Foundation dedicated to providing resources for dads and research to improve public policy.
- The Boys Initiative – sheds light and fosters dialogue/debate on underachievement among boys and young men; collaborates on solutions with those who are committed to the futures of our nation’s youth. Their goal is to accomplish this mission by partnering and building coalitions with organizations that represent the interests of girls and women, boys and men, parents and teachers and adolescent health care providers, among a host of other individuals, organizations and professionals devoted to the well-being of male youth.
- BuildingBoys — founded in 2013 by Jennifer L.W. Fink (writer and mother of four boys) BuildingBoys.net is a resource and one-stop-shop for parents, educators, healthcare providers, community activists and anyone who cares about boys. Jennifer also hosts On Boys, a podcast featuring real talk about parenting, teaching, and reaching tomorrow’s men.
- Men’s Health Network (MHN) — a national non-profit organization whose mission is to reach men, boys, and their families where they live, work, play, and pray with health awareness and disease prevention messages and tools, screening programs, educational materials, advocacy opportunities, and patient navigation.
- Men’s E-News — founded in 2008 by experts involved in men, boys, and family related issues who believed that an educational website was needed and could play an important role in society. Men’s E-News has four weekly newsletters, RSS News Feeds that you can add to your own website, and a library containing books relating to men and boys issues, as well as articles written by national leading experts. Men’s E-News updates offer daily new events, articles, research and data relevant to the health and well-being of men, boys, and families.
- Family Reunion USA – this national nonprofit organization gives a voice to children whose parents are divorced, separated, or were never married. Family Reunion educates the public, media, and lawmakers on the importance of ‘shared parenting’ that grants both parents equal rights, responsibilities, and parenting time, to the major benefit of children. Their website hosts educational programs, videos, media, social networking campaigns, and advocacy programs outlining the issues created by destructive family laws and policies and the current adversarial court system that discounts one parent. Their committee works with existing organizations, experts, and individuals and also reaches out to policymakers at State and federal levels.
- Leading Women for Shared Parenting (LW4SP) – an organization whose supporters recognize that children need both parents. LW4SP was brought to a prominent place in custody conversations by prominent women in media and politics who have been championing shared parenting issues in the public forum of ideas and in policy-making circles in support of effective attention and positive legislative action.
- Association of Youth Ministry Educators (AYME): “A Community of Christ-Centered Scholars” focusing on youth ministry.
- Families & Work Institute – re-balancing work and family; provides “research to live, learn, and work by.” Since 1989, the Institute has conducted some of the only research studies of their kind on emerging issues in the workforce/workplace, youth, early childhood, and changing communities.
- A Guide to Family Dinner Night – read more about the value of Family Dinner Night (and how to keep it from becoming a Family Dinner Nightmare) in The Boy Crisis book!
- ZOOMsci (PBS) — Since boys love to learn by doing, and dads learn to teach by doing, ZOOMsci offers more than a hundred games and activities that teach your child how to do things like design something, experiment with his or her senses, work with energy, use fingerprints or snowflakes to detect patterns, create a string telephone or guitar, and build a bird feeder from a milk carton or a bridge out of toothpicks. Your son may or may not discover a penchant for engineering, but you’ll certainly discover that, when it includes “doing,” bonding with your son can be both cheap and fun.
- International Boys Day – annually on May 16th. Check out the IBD website for ideas on how to celebrate, support, and appreciate the boys in your life.
- The Fatherless Generation Foundation – Michigan Native, Dr. Torri J. Evans-Barton, Founder & CEO of TFGF has successfully reunited 3,112 fatherless children with their biological fathers. 1 out of 3 African American children grow up in a fatherless household and according to the National Center for Fathering, 72.2% of the U.S. population believes, fatherlessness is the most significant family or social problem facing America.
- LPS Publishing – Book publisher. Having written and self-published 10 books, and published two other writers’ books, Mike Buchanan is in an ideal position to bring your book project to fruition. Unlike vanity publishers, some of which charge writers outrageous sums for publishing books, cynically exaggerating their books’ sales potential, Mike will be honest with you.
- WATCH D.O.G.S. – WATCH D.O.G.S. is one of the nation’s largest and most respected school-based, family, and community engagement, organizations in the country. Since the program’s creation in 1998, more than 6,450 schools across the country have launched a WATCH D.O.G.S. program of their own. Each school year hundreds of thousands of fathers and father-figures make a positive impact on millions of children by volunteering millions of hours in their local schools through this amazing one-of-a-kind program. Watch an inspiring video featuring WATCH D.O.G.S. on NBC Today.
Do you know of other great organizations and/or programs you admire? Contribute your additions on our Reader’s Forum FB Group and we’ll add them to this list!
The Benefits of Dad, Documented
The Boy Crisis includes a list of 55 areas incorporating 70+ specific benefits of dad involvement or dangers of dad deprivation. The full list can be found in Appendix B; seven are on rotation here at
www.boycrisis.org.
• Worldwide, the amount of time a father spends with a child is one of the strongest predictors of the child’s ability to empathize as he gets older.”
• Father absence predicts the profile of both the bully and the bullied: poor self-esteem, poor grades, and poor social skills.
• Among criminals assessed as raping out of anger and rage, 80 percent came from father-absent homes.
• Among preschool children admitted as psychiatric patients in two New Orleans hospitals, 80 percent came from homes without fathers. Similar percentages emerge among dad-deprived children in Canada, South Africa, and Finland, at ages from preschool through high school.
• Even when race, education, income, and other socioeconomic factors are equal, living without dad doubled a child’s chance of dropping out of high school.
• Every 1 percent increase in fatherlessness in a neighborhood predicts a 3 percent increase in adolescent violence.
• Both boys and girls suffer after their parents divorce, but the greatest feelings of deprivation and depressive behavior were observed among boys.
