Students often face challenges adjusting to new school environments, finding places to fit in and understanding their impact. Community-based programming, like the Becoming a Man program, may be alleviating some of those struggles among youth.

Youth Guidance, a non-profit organization based in Chicago, aims to help youth focus on their education and overcome the obstacles that come with growing up. It was named a winner in a 2018 community challenge competition through the My Brother’s Keeper Alliance initiative started by former President Barack Obama, making it a model for expanding evidence-based initiatives to improve the opportunities for and lives of boys of color. It was also one of 10 winning “National Impact Communities” across 10 states and Puerto Rico. 

Becoming a Man is a school-based counseling program through Youth Guidance that serves young men in seventh through 12th grade. At the time of the competition, the organization served over 12,000 students in Chicago schools, with about 95% of those students identifying as African-American or Latine, according to the Obama Foundation. Becoming a Man expanded its services to over 75 schools in Chicago, and four of them are supported by the My Brother’s Keeper Impact award. 

Chicago Public Schools has included Becoming a Man in their group program offerings through their office of social and emotional learning. CPS encourages parents to ask if the program is available to their student at their school.

Early studies conducted by the University of Chicago showed that Becoming a Man cut violent crime arrests among youth nearly in half, and it raised high school graduation rates of program participants by about 20%.

Anthony Williams joined Becoming a Man in 2014. He said his program counselor helped him throughout high school, and he was able to build a brotherhood where participants cheered each other on.

“My counselor always saw the best in me and my potential. At times I felt they saw more in me than I see in myself,” Williams said. He now works as a research administrator at Northwestern University.

Becoming a Man develops lessons built around real-life scenarios, role-playing and group exercises to help members practice impulse control and emotional self-regulation while building accountability, integrity and future aspirations.  

Tedros Mekonen, a 2024 Becoming a Man alum, said that Youth Guidance supported him financially and taught him about responsibility and securing internships. 

“I learned what it means to be a man and a provider for my family,” Mekonen said.

Youth Guidance was founded in 1924 as The Church Mission of Help to assist girls in need of necessities like shelter, clothing and medical care. In 2001, the Becoming a Man program was founded under Youth Guidance. Ten years later, its parallel program, Working On Womanhood, was launched in Chicago.

Building respect for womanhood is a core value of Becoming a Man’s curriculum. Students are tasked with learning positive communication skills to increase their appreciation for women. The other five values of the programs are: integrity, accountability, self-determination, visionary goal-setting and positive anger expression.

Jermaine Hawkins, 2014 DePaul alum, was looking for careers in youth advocacy shortly after obtaining his undergraduate degree in peace studies and conflict resolution.

“I just stumbled across BAM and wanted to reduce criminal records in youth,” Hawkins said. 

Hawkins became a Becoming a Man counselor in 2017 and worked at Foreman High School in Portage Park for eight years. 

“It’s nice to see many Black males becoming counselors as I was only one of the few. A lot of educators are white and their lessons apply to a specific culture,” Hawkins said. “A white educator’s lessons don’t apply to Black culture; it’s like oil and water.”

As a counselor, Hawkins aims to help individuals break generational cycles of violence and overcome the negative effects of their environment. 

The Mental Health Foundation, which is based in the United Kingdom, adopted Becoming a Man in 2020. The program, strategically placed in low-income and under-resourced communities, has supported hundreds of young men across three schools in north London.

“It’s beautiful seeing Youth Guidance’s improvement over the years,” Williams said. “It shows how important these programs are to young people and how much they need them.”