Initiatives

MENTORING PROGRAM

500 Men provides community service opportunities, for adult male mentors, who will work and engage with the organization’s mentees across the New York Metro area. One-on-one sessions are done in close proximity to the mentee’s neighborhood.

Requirements

In order to qualify as a one-on-one mentoring match with a youth mentee, our recruited applicants must pass a full criminal background check, and employment screening.

Matching Process

500 Men conducts a screening process that matches mentors with young men in need of support. Initial one-on-one sessions are supervised by senior mentors with more than 30 hours of training in adolescent development.

Group Mentoring

500 Men also conducts group mentoring sessions, where as many as 10 young men engage in discussion, or other group activities, under the supervision of an adult male mentor. Group activities may include field trips to local historical sites, sporting events, films, colleges, camping trips, hiking trips and other activities.

Preview some of our past Mentorship Events

TUTORING PROGRAM

Tutoring sessions are scheduled with school officials to begin four weeks prior to important testing dates, such as the Regent’s exam. 500 Men Making a Difference recruits persons with advanced knowledge of algebra, trigonometry, and calculus to, both, tutor students and train other community members to be effective tutors.

500 Men strives to provide supplementary learning materials in math and science, such as practice exams with both written and online materials, to students, as well as partnering with other institutions to provide learning experiences at schools with more advanced facilities.

This program provides New York City youth, who have been classified as at-risk teens, the necessary time and attention needed to properly prepare for regularly scheduled and standardized test, at the high-school level. The goal is to reverse traditionally high drop-out rates among New York City minority male teenagers, which is the highest in the nation.

CIVIC PROJECTS

500 Men seeks to improve the community with tangible results, by participating in civic building and renovation projects. It has worked on projects like the clean-up of Von King Park and repainting of the Von King Theater space in Brooklyn; the rubbish removal project at Paul Robeson Theater in Brooklyn; and many other renovation and painting projects throughout New York.

500 Men gives the young men in its mentorship program the opportunity to participate in these renovation projects, which provide an opportunity for the mentees to work alongside their mentors and other men in their community. Many of these projects require capital and supplies, and 500 Men partners with local business willing to support these efforts.

INTERNSHIPS

Through the recruitment of mentors and the creation and execution of community renovation and civic projects, 500 Men has developed partnerships with local business people, elected officials, other non-profit institutions, schools and religious institutions, in New York City.

Through these relationships the organization is able to collaborate on providing internship opportunities at the aforementioned sites, for its mentees.

STEM PROGRAM