The Journey Continues
"With the proliferating crises our society faces—so often expressed through the actions of forgotten, displaced, neglected and uninitiated men— it's ever more important to connect adolescent boys with mentors who can invest in them while also modeling a new and authentic paradigm for what it means to be a man and how to live an emotionally honest life. Equally important is providing boys with an intentional threshold into manhood through which they can declare what they are living for and what kind of man they want to become—a place where men can bear witness and honor boys for their commitment to taking responsibility for themselves and their community."
Jordan Foltz
Your support has carried us far this year!
2019 has been a landmark year for Journeymen. As the year comes to a close, we want to celebrate some of the highlights we've been able to accomplish due to amazing support from our community.
- We hired our first part-time directors.
- We established a second mentoring group in Raleigh on Monday nights and we have tripled the number of boys we serve in the program.
- We partnered with Journeymen Asheville to put on two Rites of Passage Adventure Weekends (ROPAWs), mentoring 29 boys as they took their first steps to become conscious men of integrity.
Mentoring Successes
Journeymen began the year with one Community-Based mentoring group. In August, we initiated a second Community-Based group with 8 new boys and 4 mentors. We have also developed a waiting list to create a third group in 2020. With the two active groups and Rites of Passage Programming, Journeymen has mentored 44 young men over the course of 2019!
New Directors, Mentors and Board Members
In January, Journeymen hired our first staff! Jordan Bowman is serving as Executive Director and Jake Humphrey as Program Director. Both of these men participated in the Journeymen program when they were teenagers and both have served on the Board of Directors. We are pleased to announce Travis Compton and Billy Blackmon as our newest Board Members!
Our expansion this year would have not been possible without the dedication of our volunteer mentors. Six new mentors have answered the call this year and enrolled! We now have 10 active mentors with about 50% being alumni of the program.
Khalil, a Journeymen since 2017, graduated this May! Since graduating from High School and from our Journeymen groups, Khalil has come back to serve as a mentor in our program.
"You get to talk to other men about the things going on with your life right now and it helps so much."
Khalil
Looking Forward
In 2020, we expect to continue growing our capacity to serve boys in our local community and across the Southeast region. Some of our goals for next year are:
- Host 2 ROPAWs serving 36 boys across the Southeast region.
- Enroll 5 new mentors and host a mentor facilitation training in Raleigh.
- Establish a third mentoring group with new mentors and boys from the waiting list.
How you can help
Stay connected with us next year by subscribing to our newsletter!
If you know of a young man who may be interested or anyone who may be interested in mentoring or volunteering as part of the Journeymen community, please email us at JourneymenTriangle@gmail.com or visit our Facebook page.
We are seeking two more board members for 2020 - If you are interested in becoming a board member please reach out to Jordan Bowman at 919.907.1177
Journeymen is meeting a deep and growing need young men have for positive, responsible male mentors. In donating, you are enriching the lives of young men in your community and helping build a better future by investing in their development of compassion, accountability, self-awareness, integrity, resilience, and authenticity.
As a volunteer-driven organization, Journeymen is able to accomplish a lot with very limited resources—your donation goes a long way. Thank you for supporting the boys on their paths to becoming men of integrity.
