Concerned Black Men of America is expanding its mentoring outreach program to three new cities this summer. The CBM CARES® National Mentoring Initiative — which is currently serving middle school youth in Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Prince George’s County, Md., Richmond, Va. and Columbia, S.C. — will begin serving students in Los Angeles and Oakland, Calif. and Dallas, Texas.

CBM CARES® is a year-round effort for at-risk boys ages 9 to 16. A combination of one-to-one and group mentoring activities, the program seeks to offer guidance, support and encouragement to young men in need of positive male role models. The mentors help the young men develop confidence and maturity, and curb juvenile delinquency and gang participation, while also increasing academic achievement. The program has been used as a model of mentoring standards for boys.

The goal for each site is to have at least 35 adult mentors (African-American men in the community) to engage in one-on-one mentoring with 100 young men at each of the new sites. Group mentoring also will take place with all of the boys. CBM National is seeking to make a similar impact in other cities, replicating the program across the country and including more children and placing more responsible adults in the lives of our boys.

“The only thing keeping us from 100 one-to-one mentors — a personal mentor for each boy,” says CBM President & CEO, Reginald Broddie, “is the difficulty of finding men who want to give of their time to support a young African American male child.”

CBM CARES® plans to begin mentoring young males in Cape Cod, Massachusetts in the fall of this year.