Chapter 7: Maintaining Momentum to Empower boys and Young Men of Color in the out-of-school Time Field

Over a twenty year period I participated in the struggle to reduce disparities facing male youth of color and help facilitate successful life outcomes for an unjustly targeted and poorly supported population. My work in this area began in graduate school as a founder, community organizer, and co-leader of Columbia School of Social Work’s Male Action Coalition (Gilgoff, 2001). Our group was founded in 1999 to address the need for greater awareness, programming, funding, research, and education dedicated to males, in particular, males of color.

My views have been formed as a social worker dedicated to the strength-based therapeutic empowerment of urban male youth. I have facilitated afterschool youth groups and coordinated civic engagement and youth advocacy events. I have written curricula, research papers, and training manuals. Observing the challenges faced by boys and young men of color (BYMOC) across decades and cities, I became committed to providing not only services grounded in social justice, but also therapeutically-informed community capacity building. The goal of my work over the years is to help transform institutions to be more responsive to the needs of this population.