Progress Report

April 2004

To date we have served 32 boys with the gift of mentor matches, Rites of Passage Adventure Challenge, plus ongoing peer support and activity circles. We’ve had Three ROPA’s so far, (In September 2003, we co-hosted our third annual Rites of Passage Adventure weekend (ROPA) for boys together with the new BTM center in Sioux City, Iowa.)

We currently have two journeymen active for three years, three for two years and another five active since September for a total of 10 that we are currently serving in J-groups. There are about 15 that are currently being served via one to one mentor relationships. We’ve had 6 journeymen guest staff at ROPA’s in other states.

Two Minnesota Journeymen took the J-Men leadership training in 2003. Forty nine men from Minnesota have been trained through BTM-MN’s Mentor Training weekend.

BTM-MN’s Board recently concluded chairing a series of new vision & mission clarity sessions for BTM-MN. We raised the bar, so we will now expand our safe community where boys and men gather and participate in recreational, service and apprenticeship activities that foster rewarding relationships and meaningful adolescent development experiences. Improvements we’ll implement include:

· New collaborations with existing mentoring organizations to create more mentor matches for teenage boys.

· Expanding the “target market” for the Rites of Passage Adventure to include boys and their dads or other significant man as well as existing groups of boys and men (e.g.: youth services and church communities etc.) who are craving a “rites of passage” ceremony and or mentor matchups.

· Redesigning the Rites of Passage Adventure to better meet the expected outcomes of the rite, incorporate contemporary mentoring methods (e.g.: Art of Mentoring, Coyote Learning) and include themes more relevant to the boy’s current experiences and developmental needs.

· Expanding our community events to include more service work and apprenticeship opportunities for the J-Men and candidate boys.

· Hiring our first staff members thus expanding the number of boys served. (We have a part time executive director and a part time activities coordinator.)

We had a one year collaboration with Kinship (mentoring) of Minnesota, they are a division of Lutheran Brotherhood services. Through this collaboration 2 boys were matched up from Kinships waiting lists. At the end of this period we decided that our programs were two different in their scope.

We are beginning a new collaboration with Unity Unitarian Church of St. Paul in which a “Chapter” of Boys to Men is starting that will deliver all of our program components.

In this new collaboration we will also include other mentoring organizations to manage our mentor match ups. We are dialoging with Boulder Options, and academic based mentoring program, Big Brother Big Sister of Minnesota, and Free Arts Minnesota.

The Minnesota BTM was the sole recipient of the 2002 (Minnesota) Ron Hering Mission of Service Award. This award is administered by the National Mankind Project. Charlie Borden, Minnesota BTM’s executive director also was given Robbinsdale Minnesota’s annual award for service to Youth for his work in the Boys to Men specifically to the Robbinsdale School district.

While the specifics are obviously confidential, we’ve walked with boys through everything from playful events to suicide attempts. We’ve been with the boys in school meetings, hospitals, woods, and homes. The love has returned to the mentors too, as they discover that there are gifts that can only be gotten by spending time with a child.

A year ago, the founder of North Star Ice, Bud Rooney has offered Boys to Men a matching grant. He was able to pledge to match us dollar for dollar for all our funds raised up to $40,000.00. So far we’ve gotten $10,000.oo of the grant. Part of this was a match of $5,000 received from the Minneapolis foundation, specifically from the Richard & Gloria Borden fund. We’ve applied for two other grants in previous years. Our letters back from organizations like McKnight and Jerome foundations

have also told us that if we are successful with a first campaign and larger annual operating budget like the one we are engaged in, we will then meet more of their criteria for a stable community investment.

Currently we have a Board with Five Members. There are two part time (mere stipend) staff members. Four of the five board members are active mentors. In addition we have another 7 mentors who transport boys, bring food, or make phone calls. Besides these there are another dozen men who volunteer on a task by task basis.

We have about five professionals who volunteer to consult on special issues with boys or men IE psychological issues & community support. When BTM-MN co hosts it’s next ROPA in Late Fall 2004, it will be via the Unity Unitarian Chapter. Most boys will come from the Unity Community, however we will intake other boys and have them be active in this chapter.

Similarly we expect most mentors to come from within the Unity Community, however we also have already been in taking mentors from the MN Mankind project who have expressed commitment to working within the BTM Unity Chapter. When the ROPA occurs I would expect to have about 17 Unity Boys and 3 others. We project that there will be about 12 Unity Mentors and 3 others plus about 20 Unity Staff men and about 13 seasoned BTM MN veteran staffers including leaders.

Thanks.