Tag Archives: Boys Council

Let me ask this: what happens when children don’t have “Real Models” to look up to? What happens when the very people that brought children into this world don’t exemplify healthy love? What happens when children don’t have a village? What if I said, “When the community children stop crying, the community is dying.”  I invite you to stop reading for a moment and think about that. I was reared in a time where as soon as the street light came on I had to be back at the house. A time where if I was doing something I had no business it was OK for someone from the village to say, “All right now, you know better. Do I need to call your grandparents?” A time where grandma always had a home-cooked meal. I was reared to be respectful, yes mam/ no mam, or yes sir/no sir

All of us - of all genders, ages, and cultures - have a role to play in solving this crisis. Underneath the abject horrors of school shootings, below the grasp of automatic rifles and magazine cartridges, exists a teenager, angry, overwhelmed, who’s endured childhood abuse, domestic violence, and severe bullying at school. According to data trackers, the adolescent is, on average, 16 years old.New York Times columnist David Brooks notes this teen is in crisis, isolated, bitter, at a breaking point, and craving revenge, power, and notoriety. And, he is male.  98% of mass shooters are male, as reported in The Violence Project: How to Stop a Mass Shooting Epidemic, 2021, by researchers Jillian Peterson and James Densley. We know this. But do we ask, “Why?”  As gender violence prevention educator and activist, Jackson Katz, asks, why does the media avoid saying so, most often using gender-neutral terms like shooter, perpetrator, or intruder for an action that is patently not gender-neutral? While access to assault weapons must urgently be addressed, it’s also imperative that we dig deeper to uproot a rotted source of male violence deeply embedded in our social

The best way to ensure youth feel comfortable to share and grow in their circle is to have a safe, stable, and predictable circle structure that occurs each session. This provides girls/boys with a reliable framework that they can trust and count on to happen each time. A crucial part of creating this safe, stable circle structure is the talking piece. The talking piece may be a talking stick, an object from nature such as a beautiful shell or large rock, or another item of value and meaning to the group.  The talking piece is a physical item that is used whenever the practice of attentive listening is particularly important. During check-in and at certain times during the circle session one person shares about the topic at hand by holding the talking piece and speaking from their heart, while all others listen attentively and without interruption. To begin using the talking piece

Summer can be a challenging time for youth and families. Youth may be prevented from engaging in meaningful activities due to a lack of resources, availability, financial access, or a host of other challenges.  During the One Circle Foundation facilitator support meeting in July, some of our partners shared creative ways that they continue to engage youth during the summer months. The ideas were too good not to share. With the permission of both of our partners, we are pleased to make available the following ideas for engaging youth in meaningful activities.

Articles continue to pop up on my newsfeed about how the pandemic has been detrimental to the mental health of many, especially young people. The isolation, lack of connection with peers, and the uptick in violence within homes and racism within communities during the last 2+ years have led to a mental health crisis for youth.  According to the 2021 CDC Adolescent Behaviors and Experiences Survey (ABES) of 7,705 high school students, nearly half reported they persistently felt sad or hopeless and experienced emotional abuse in the home, while The Trevor Project’s 2021 Survey showed that 70% of LGBTQ+ youth stated that their mental health was “poor” most of the time or always during COVID-19.  In October 2021, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) declared a national emergency in children's mental health. AAP President, Gabrielle A. Carlson said, “We are caring for young people with soaring rates of depression, anxiety, trauma, loneliness, and suicidality that will have lasting

Access a document that outlines detailed suggestions for adjusting each step of any OCF model to make it work beautifully while facilitating online circles. 

2022 is the 25th Anniversary of One Circle Foundation. Walk through a snapshot of the One Circle Foundation journey to see where it all began and how OCF became the organization that is thriving today.