We just ended our Helping Boys Thrive Summit in Phoenix.  Next week we will be in Littleton, Colorado, near the school where young lives were lost twenty years ago to a school shooter.  The Gurian Institute and its partners have been proud to collaborate on Helping Boys Thrive Summits with local organizers.  Some of the Summits are run by secular agencies/organizations, and those summits are secular in nature.  Every year, too, some of them are run by faith communities.  The Phoenix event last week was one of those.  

In a moment, Pastor Tim Wright, one of the co-presenters and founding members of this Phoenix event, will share his take on what happened in Phoenix.  First, let me say, I cannot express enough my gratitude to everyone who helps organize and participates in these events.  Special thanks for the Phoenix Summit to Tim and Jeff Wright, and to the team at First Institutional Baptist Church, where the Summit was held.

One participant walked out of the Phoenix Summit saying, ‘This is one of the most powerful events I have attended in my life.  It was transformational!”  Another participant said, “Boys are in crisis and this event gave me tools I can use to help them right away.”  

People came together from diverse backgrounds and organizations, including government agencies, faith communities, local neighborhoods, non-profits, counseling agencies, schools, and parent groups to focus on the needs of boys in general, the specific needs of black and Latino boys, the connection between helping boys and helping girls, how to alter our social systems to deal with the boy crisis, and strategies teachers, parents, counselors, and mentors could use immediately to help boys. 

Here are some words from Tim about the event.

“I had the privilege once again to join my good friend, Michael Gurian, for a Helping Boys Thrive Summit in Phoenix.  Michael’s vision for this Summit is to create a grass-roots movement of parents, educators, faith community leaders, government workers, coaches, therapists, and all who care about boys, empowered with brain-science research and best practices, who will work in their communities to help our boys thrive.

“Michael and I have done several of these Summits the last few years and each Summit is a reminder to me of the importance of our children’s care, and the power we have to change the storyline of our boys.

“More than 150 people came to the event from ‘the Valley of the Sun.’  The event took place in downtown Phoenix at Valley: First Institutional Baptist Church.  This congregation has been at the forefront of the civil rights movement, so it was a great place for us to host this movement for boys.

“Michael spent the morning introducing us to boys via video clips, stories, and brain-science.  The afternoon began with actress Terry Summers, who uses her acting gifts to talk about bullying in our schools.  I then did a session about the challenges boys face in our current culture and some things we can do to help them thrive.  We wrapped up the day with four targeted workshops:

*Helping Black Boys and their Families Thrive

*Helping Latino Boys and their Families Thrive

*Educating Boys to Thrive—Strategies for the Classroom

*The Parent-Church Connection—How Faith Communities Can Help.

As always, it’s a thrill to see people light up with insight and walk out empowered to help our children.”

America’s boys are in crisis.  As this week’s feature Article, you will find a blog I wrote two weeks ago, after the Parkland shooting.  Many of you have written in about that shooting, requested the blog be reposted, and you have talked about how worried you are, as I am, about the future of boyhood in America.  

I hope you will forward the blog and spread the word.  There are solutions.  We must come together to use them.  We can change what needs to be changed, and we can do it now.

If you’d like to look at hosting a Helping Boys Thrive summit in your community, click www.helpingboysthrive.org and please contact us at info@gurianinstitute.com.