Extension educators often seek new strategies for engaging minority youths in 4-H programs, especially young Black males. These strategies require programming developed in response to the context of this population. We offer insights into the social context of Black males and offer suggestions that will help educators develop identity and…

While after-school programs are plentiful, they are often developed arbitrarily with little attention given to theoretical underpinnings that may inform program interventions. In this article, after-school programs are situated in resilience theory as protective factors, which encourage resilience among young Black males and other urban youth. The…

Black male adolescents face unique barriers in schools that may contribute to racial disparities in educational outcomes. Their social-cognitive strengths, however, influence their confidence to be academically successful despite these barriers. This study explored whether racial academic stereotypes and racial centrality were associated with and…

The social and educational life risks associated with being a Black male in the United States are not novel concerns. However, researchers, policymakers, educators, and other stakeholders have yet to consistently identify programs and interventions that can mediate the inequities that confront young Black men. Some researchers have indicated that…

Critiques the ways problems confronting black males are framed and acted on, focusing on the role of race and gender in the development of interventions. Drawing on research at an urban California high school, the article presents recommendations for programs aimed at the needs of black males that avoid marginalizing those targeted. (SLD)

The presence of individual and ecological assets for positive development was assessed through data derived from individual interviews with 45 African American adolescent male members of inner-city Detroit gangs and 50 African American adolescent males living in the same communities but involved in community-based organizations (CBOs) aimed at…

Presents initial findings in a study of language use by preadolescent African-American male participants in a neighborhood sponsored Youth Basketball Association. Using data collected over a 30-month period in Chicago (Illinois), the study takes an ethnographic approach for exploring communicative competencies in oral and written language. (JB)

Examines six mentoring programs conducted by fraternities and other organizations to ascertain the perceptions of participants of the effectiveness of their involvement. Results with 51 mentors and 54 African-American male adolescents support the positive impact of mentoring programs. Mentoring can be an important component of multifaceted…

Details a qualitative, descriptive study of three participants in the African American Achievers Youth Corps, Inc., a program matching at-risk African American middle school and high school males with adult mentors. These case studies indicate that caring and supportive behaviors of adults can improve the self-esteem and academic achievement of…

This booklet reviews historical, social, and developmental information about young black males as well as strategies for change and examples of successful programs. The text is based on a 1-day conference on at-risk young black men. The first section sketches the conditions of inner-city black families from the earlier decades of the century to…

An overview is provided of issues confronting the African American male, along with a strategy to nurture a new generation of African American males. Chapters 1 and 2 focus on the social status and new demographics of the African American male and the external threats that are devastating to the African American male and the African American…

No ceremony or rite exists to usher the African American male youth into proper manhood. Such ceremonies, referred to as rites of passage, mark commonly agreed-upon standards, activities, tasks, and trials that each youth must master to achieve the community-sanctioned title "man." The clear articulation and subsequent implementation of…

This paper examines the mentoring of African American youth, critiques the accepted theoretical basis for most programs, and offers an alternative framework. Following an introduction in section 1, section 2 describes conventional mentoring and contains two case studies of programs in the San Francisco Bay Area (California). A key finding of the…

Sources of the crises faced by young black men lie not in the young men, but in society which portrays them as stereotypes. Social conditions are at the root of the following problems of black males: (1) lowered life expectancy; (2) risk of criminality; (3) poor economic conditions; (4) inadequate education; (5) drugs and gang violence; and (6)…

A pilot survey was conducted to explore why some young African American men living in cities stay in high school and why others drop out. Between October 1993 and March 1994, face-to-face interviews were conducted with 360 young black men aged 17 to 22, randomly drawn from census tracts in New York (New York), Chicago (Illinois), Los Angeles…