GFC’s Healthy Masculinities program in the UK expands on the resounding success of the Boys and Young Men (BYM) pilot initiative in 2020, which empowered a network of ten community-based organizations to foster positive, healthy, and expansive masculinities. Building on the work of community-based partners across the country and with a new focus on underserved rural communities and organizations operating beyond major cities, the Healthy Masculinities program is addressing the prevailing gaps by prioritizing trauma-informed approaches to masculinities and funding preventative work tailored to boys and young men.
It is a call to reimagine masculinities, promoting boys’ and young men’s visions of alternative, expansive, and healthy expressions that acknowledge the intersections of race, class, gender identity, sex, location, religion, and ability. Moreover, it aims to rectify the glaring absence of youth voices in this discourse, providing a platform for boys and young men to share their own perspectives.
At its core, this program recognizes the indispensable role played by community organizations and local charities, which possess a unique ability to reach and support at-risk and vulnerable boys and young men in ways that statutory organizations cannot. By championing their work, GFC hopes to ignite broader funder engagement in this critical area across the UK, with far-reaching implications on an international scale.
The Support from GFC has radically transformed our work and the sector. It is so much more than merely financial – GFC commits on a personal level to helping upskill organisations like ours. To better serve the needs of our beneficiaries, to make us increasingly more viable to funders, and to better inform the wider sector, we are indebted to GFC for the support we’ve received.
Imran, Head of Service at Breaking the Silence
Our partner Breaking the Silence (BTS) supports a particularly underserved population of West Yorkshire: Black-African, Afro-Caribbean, and South Asian boys and young men who are affected by, or are survivors of, sexual abuse, many of whom are reluctant to seek help because of structural racism and patriarchal cultural structures. BTS conducts extensive community outreach to find its clients, supporting them through interventions to keep them safe, and then offers individual and group counseling to meet each survivor’s unique needs.
