| The impetus for this project stemmed from the lack of male involvement throughout my church family. There are a large number of African American churches that have men who are present but not active, thus depriving the church of its male role models. Adolescent males do not have a large enough cross-section of men in the various leadership positions to emulate. This inactivity is enhanced even more when one considers this patter of invisibility exists in the family model also. These affects have long-term ramifications.;Mentoring youths is very important and training them to fill this void created by the lack of functionality by many African American males is essential. Rather than waiting for the "invisible" man to show up, it was necessary to devise a way for the present African American male to increase his self-awareness, improve his self-image and repair his damaged psyche possible created from the lasting effects of slavery and discrimination.;Instead of focusing solely on the mentorees as many others programs do, it was best to prepare mentors and make them useful and productive now as the needs of the people are numerous. It uses techniques calls for the usage of Heinz Kohut's methodology of self-healing to elevate the mental make-up as a mentor and, thus, encourage him to become more productive and visible within the church and family system. It also shows the affects of his underfunctioning thus causing too many women to try to balance out the familial structure per Bowen's Theory Family Systems by over compensating for his lacking.;It reveals potential areas of weakness within the mentors and goes out to show the mentors that improving their perception of self and their perspective of their life situations, would increase their ability to function in the church family and within their nuclear families. |
