Boys Council

What is A Boys Council?

Boys Council is a strengths-based group approach to promote boys' and young men's safe, strong and healthy passage through pre-teen and adolescent years. Boys Council meets a core developmental need in boys for strong, positive relationships. In this structured environment, boys and young men gain the vital opportunity to address masculine definitions and behaviors and build their capacities to find their innate value and create good lives - individually and collectively!

Boys Council aims to promote boys’ natural strengths, and to increase their options about being male in today’s world. Boys Council challenges myths about how to be a “real boy” or “real man”. It engages boys in activities, dialogue, and self-expression to question stereotypical concepts and to increase boys’ emotional, social, and cultural literacy by promoting valuable relationships with peers and adult facilitators.

In a safe and action-oriented context, boys can identify the positive and not-so-positive definitions about being male today. They are invited to define the “male box” that shapes and constricts their growth. Boys Council lets boys examine the messages that define being male, and gives boys new and different options for self-expression and team experiences, promoting skill building and safe, healthy, positive, strong and diverse identities.

How Does Boys Council Work?

Each week, a group of six to ten boys of similar age and development meet with one or two facilitators for 1.5 to 2 hours. These meetings are held for ten weeks or more, depending on the capacity of the setting.

The group format includes warm up activities, a “council” type check in opportunity, experiential activities that address relevant topics, and a reflection and group dialogue component. The focused activities may include group challenges, games, skits or role plays, arts, and so on. Topics may address:

competition
the male “box”
bullying
valuing diversity
safe expression of
emotions
defining power from multiple perspectives
influences of mentors
and role models
rejecting violence

becoming allies with girls and women
mentoring and making a difference with others
making safe and healthy decisions for themselves
finding and living with value in difficult times

To participate, boys need only have the interest, make a commitment to attend the meetings, and agree to follow the council agreements. These agreements are developed by the group itself and typically include: no put-downs or interruptions, offer experiences - not advice; keep the focus on yourself and your experience; and keep what’s said in the group confidential. Facilitators explain the legal and ethical limits to confidentiality in order to safeguard the boys’ well-being. Boys are free to participate at their own pace. Participants can express a range of ideas and emotions with peers and can expect respect and high regard from one another.

Rather than attempting to “instill values”, the model strengthens boys’ inherent preference to live according to good and diverse prosocial values. Boys Councils provide resiliency and youth development practices and concepts: youth are knowledgeable, wise, and helpful to each other when facilitators are courteous and respectful, share responsibility and leadership, and demonstrate belief in their abilities to rise to the challenges in group and in life.

When boys have an opportunity to express ideas, identify and normalize a full range of emotions, and make decisions in a safe, nonjudgmental community, their resiliency is strengthened.

Where It Works
Boys Council groups are well-suited in all settings where boys live and gather: schools, after school programs, community youth groups and projects, juvenile justice settings, recreational programs, foster care services, mentoring projects, faith organizations, outdoor and adventure learning, camps, mental health programs.