An award-winning program of Children’s Home Society of North Carolina, celebrates 30 years of its holistic approach in providing social and emotional learning to promote healthy relationships to teen males.
Teen males are powerfully shaped by our culture’s concepts of masculinity and manhood. All too often those concepts are associated with aggression and dominance. Sex is seen as a sign of manhood and caring as a sign of weakness. Wise Guys gives young men a chance to rethink their understandings of these concepts, and to consider the idea of strength as something that is shown most powerfully through respect and responsibility, not by force. As teen males begin to have honest conversations with their peers on these topics, they see that not all males conform to stereotyped expectations, and they gain valuable support from each other. Wise Guys engages teen males in an interactive, participatory process that examines their values and goals for the future, and provides them with the basis to make healthy choices in their relationships.
Today, the Wise Guys program is offered in English and Spanish to a variety of audiences across the country. Communities, coast to coast, have implemented Wise Guys with diverse groups of males in a variety of settings: from schools, community and health centers to sports leagues, faith groups, and more. Over 5,000 teen males participated in this program last year.
Training is available for educators and other professionals who would like to start the Wise Guys program in their own communities.
Working to prevent sexual violence by providing healthy relationships education in the community.
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