Recognizing that adolescence is a critical time period where behaviors are formed that frequently carry over to adulthood, these initiatives meet young men where they are, with the goal of instilling healthy norms. The Making Connections initiative in Houston embarked on a journey to develop and facilitate a series of conversations on the topics of healthy relationships, unhealthy norms around masculinity and alternative models for healthy masculinity, and teen dating violence. 

Founded in 1997 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Promundo is an international leader in promoting gender justice and anti-violence through research, programs, and advocacy. The organization engages men and boys in partnership with all genders to transform harmful gender norms and unequal power dynamics as part of their goal of achieving gender equality. With programming and partners in over 45 countries, from Brazil to the United States, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Portugal and more, Promundo has a global impact, reaching nearly 10 million individuals to date. For more information on Promundo’s history and mission, visit here. This profile provides a snapshot of Promundo’s various gender-transformative programs and focuses on their work with men and boys.

Founded in 2008, Black Women’s Blueprint is a national black feminist organization that works at the grassroots and institutional levels to address gender violence against women and girls in Black, African-American, and other communities of color. The organization uses a civil and human rights approach to develop a culture where women of African descent are fully empowered and disparities are erased.

The Rhode Island Coalition Against Domestic Violence (RICADV) is moving from theory to action as a leader in preventing domestic violence through a health equity lens. The coalition has created and implemented many efforts to internally and externally work against racism and other oppressions and commit to health equity -- the notion that every person has the opportunity to achieve optimal health and safety. From thinking about its hiring or internal staff meetings, to being deliberate about how the coalition distributes funds and what the coalition supports in its prevention work, health equity is a constant consideration in RICADV’s work.

Throughout her journey, Beckie Masaki has centered her efforts on sharing power and elevating opportunities for groups who have been historically and continue to be marginalized. She believes that to truly prevent and end sexual and domestic violence, it is critical to center certain groups that are disproportionately impacted. Centering race and gender justice has been a constant thread in Beckie’s journey. Beckie has put this commitment into action by supporting women of color, through forming San Francisco’s Asian Women’s Shelter, as well as Gathering Strength, a cohort of immigrant and refugee leaders in the movement.

Project Dream, Own, Tell (Project DOT) is a youth leadership program that engages young people from marginalized communities in shifting norms for healthy relationships. Social norms function as unspoken rules or guidelines shared by a group of people that shape values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors. Project DOT was designed and launched in 2014 by the New York City Alliance Against Sexual Assault (the Alliance), an agency that looks at policy, prevention, and comprehensive intervention services, and provides training, technical assistance, and resources to rape crisis partners throughout the state of New York. As one of the Alliance’s programs that is grounded in prevention, Project DOT gives young people the knowledge to think critically about how social norms are created within a community, and the tools to actively change those norms for the better through engaging peers and adults through curriculum, community mobilization, and social media campaigns.

With a growing evidence-base for interventions like Shifting Boundaries that focus on improving school environments to prevent teen dating violence and sexual violence, practitioners are increasingly implementing efforts that combine classroom lessons along with school-wide changes. The Shifting Boundaries curriculum is an evidence-based, multi-level program for middle school students to prevent sexual harassment and precursors to dating violence. The program is unique in that it embraces an environmental approach that identifies multiple strategies to support young people. As part of the Rape Prevention and Education Program, the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) is implementing Shifting Boundaries with two local partners: Safequest Solano (in Fairfield) and Center for Non Violent Community (in Sonora). Together the state and local partners are working to comprehensively improve school climate and build environments that support safety for students and school staff. This has involved gaining school buy-in, implementing the curriculum and acting on recommendations for school-wide changes.