Making Connections Houston
Making Connections Houston
Making Connections in Houston creates opportunities for boys and young men of color in the Kashmere, Wheatley, and Scarborough neighborhoods to talk about health, wellbeing, and healthy masculinity. The program, which is led by Houston’s Bureau of Youth and Adolescent Health, empowers young men to define what it means to be a man according to their own values, rather than having it defined by others or the culture at large.
Photo Credit: Houston Health Department
How They're Solving the Problem
How They're Solving the Problem
A high number of African-American and Latino boys and young men in Houston are “disconnected,” meaning they’re neither enrolled in school nor working. These young men experience high rates of adverse community experiences, including disconnected social relations and destructive social norms.
To address this, coalition partners are collaborating to develop and implement the following:
- Facilitated dialogue sessions among young men of color about healthy relationships, unhealthy norms of masculinity, alternative models for healthy masculinity, and teen dating violence.
- A series of short videos in which boys and young men of color discuss topics related to masculinity.
- An interactive syllabus that incorporates what was learned from the original dialogue series and will be used by other Houston programs serving young men of color.
Photo Credit: Rodney Allen
Impact
Impact
Making Connections in Houston has increased the resilience and mental wellbeing of African-American men and boys by creating safe spaces where the young men can tell their own stories and develop new models of healthy masculinity.
Photo Credit: Houston Health Department
Participating Organizations
Communities in Schools
Crime-Stoppers Houston
Prairie View A&M University
Harris County Juvenile Probation
Houston Area Women’s Center
Urban Enrichment Institute
Local school districts (public and private)