- One of the key shortcomings in many initiatives designed to work with black males is the presumption that a general or universal model applies to the specific needs and challenges they face.
- Negative mentoring experiences can have negative effects on the youth mentored; therefore, mentor recruitment, matching, and relationship quality are essential.
- The "Is This Work for You? Readiness to Engage Report Card" is a helpful tool to assess a program's readiness before launching a recruitment and outreach campaign for black men to serve as mentors for black boys.
- To effectively recruit and retain black men as mentors, programs must consider who to recruit (target segmentation and population identification), what to say (key message strategy), who is best to say it (positive deviance, opinion leaders, and message ambassadors), and where (multi-channel targeted outreach).
Published by
- United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey