Men and boys can play a pivotal role in eliminating interpersonal and gender violence, particularly when men commit 80- 90% of the reported cases of domestic violence. CONNECT’s work with men serves dual purposes, to begin with, as a strategy to keep women and children safe by doing prevention and intervention work with abusive men, bystanders and male youth. Also, providing men the help needed to recognize and transform their attitudes and belief systems into positive and healthy attitudes towards women children and other men.
CONNECT’s goal in its work with men is to help transform men and boys that are abusive and are silent bystanders to allies to activists along with women and girls to end intimate and community violence.
Our vision is to have a team of men that ally with women on social justice, community health and social justice issues, in their respective communities and to develop responses to interpersonal and gender violence.
A monthly roundtable for men who provide services to men and fathers in various capacities.
Seminars and community workshops held in each borough on masculinity, male socialization and ending violence against women.
A Spanish-language program that focuses on psycho-education and capacity-building for peer educators with a focus on manhood, fatherhood, and relationships with partners.
A workplace/union initiative that trains management and employees to ally on workplace/domestic violence/bullying behavior.
A 2-day introductory course that critically examines the gender, cultural and historical belief systems that can lead to family violence. It explores how men who are marginalized in society maintain power, male privilege and entitlement within their intimate and communal relationships. Participants review prevention and intervention strategies available to men and fathers to stop abusive cycles of behavior and help build and maintain amicable relationships, where appropriate, while keeping keep women and children safe.
Building upon the themes in Understanding Men Who Batter and Abuse, participants develop the in-depth knowledge and skills required to lead batters intervention groups. Co-ed facilitation is emphasized and participants learn role play and theatre techniques that model healthy relationships.
A bimonthly series of workshops for social service providers working with abusive fathers to help them stop abusive cycles of behavior and help build and maintain amicable relationships, where appropriate, while keeping women, children, and men safe.
A manhood development program specifically for high school and middle-school males. In this program, young men critically examine the cultural and historical belief systems and gender socializations that can lead to family, domestic, teen dating, gang and gender violence. They look at abuse from a race, class and gender perspective. Students explore how young men who are disenfranchised in society maintain power, male privilege and entitlement within their intimate and communal relationships. The root causes that lead to teen dating violence with other forms of youth and community violence are investigated. The project provides a space for these young men to have age-specific conversations about manhood, male socialization, male accountability, gender equality, healthy and unhealthy dating relationships, sibling, and peer relationships.
Available for fatherhood, male involvement, re-entry, mentoring, and veterans programs.