Introduction:
Men struggling with with mental health and substance abuse problems make up a substantial portion of the clients served by the sponsoring and partner organizations in this proposal. Many of these men failed, as boys, to receive the mentorship and role models they needed to become healthy adults. This project is a way to make some headway on this issue – by working upstream to focus on the healthy development of 7 to 12 year old boys, particularly those at risk. It will support these boys through providing male mentors in their lives, and by engaging them in activities that are inclusive, challenging, skill building, perhaps even perceived as risky … and most importantly – of interest to them. The project will test five unique, cost-effective projects at the local level that reach boys, and will build regional capacity to do this over the long-term.
The purpose of the project is to prevent the onset of mental health and addictions in men. The project has several goals:
Goal 1: To improve the capacity of communities to successfully mentor boys
Goal 2. To increase engagement of boys in transformative activities
Goal 3. To foster ongoing learning and support the spread of successful mentoring initiatives in the Kootenay Boundary region.
Led by the Kootenay Boundary Community Services Co-op (KBCSC), the project will roll out at two levels. The first is a region-wide approach to coordinate mentor training and ongoing community capacity building to engage at-risk boys. The second involves five community initiatives (in Castlegar, Grand Forks, Kaslo, Nelson and Trail) demonstrating that mentoring and engaging activity have a positive affect on boys. The approaches being tested in local projects will support boys by:
• Using adult-child relationships to strengthen attachment and resilience;
• Using a wrap-around case management model that involves the broader community; and
• Removing barriers to activities to increase social inclusion, healthy activity and provide male role models – these barriers may be financial, social or logistical (especially transportation).
For further information on this project, please contact Mike Kent, Regional Project Coordinator through the Co-op office at 250 352-6786.
