This article describes the first year of a partnership between a university and a community organization working to improve and expand a community-based multigenerational mentoring program for African American adolescent girls ages 12-17. The mentoring program, set in an urban Midwestern city, is a collaboration between university researcher-consultants and the program administrator of an out-of-school time (OST) program at a local community center. Program mentors are university faculty, students, and community members. Written by an interdisciplinary research team, this manuscript centers issues in consultation during the formative (research) phases of participatory culture-specific consultation. Using the Participatory Culture-Specific Intervention Model (PCSIM) as a guiding framework, authors review the processes, successes, and challenges of the formative phases of PCSIM application.