Across the country, parents, teachers, and researchers are increasingly noticing the same troubling pattern among boys and young men: fewer close friendships, more isolation, and increasing struggles with mental health. 

Fortunately, solutions to this growing loneliness crisis for boys exist, and they start with rebuilding the relationships that help young men feel supported and understood. We believe mentorship offers one of the most powerful ways we have to build meaningful relationships at scale so that boys and their families, schools, and communities can thrive together. 

By the time a boy becomes a young man, he's likely absorbed a pretty clear set of rules about what he's allowed to feel—rules that often leave little room for the kind of connection and support young people need. Nobody hands him a manual, but he learns it from what gets rewarded, what gets mocked, what the adults around him model, which messages and influencers flood his phone. Too often, boys learn that toughness is currency and vulnerability is a liability. And so when things get hard, he pulls away. One in four young men in America reports feeling deeply lonely on any given day. Two-thirds of men under 30 believe no one cares whether they're okay. And upwards of one in seven young men report having no close friends—nearly five times the rate in 1990.

As a result, many boys tend to express distress through aggression, withdrawal, and risk-taking. And our current support systems are poorly equipped to catch these cries........

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