What does existing literature say about interventions serving boys and men of color?

Despite hundreds of interventions across the U.S. focused on boys and men of color, life experiences and outcomes among boys and men of color remain largely unchanged; in some instances, they have worsened over time. To gain a better understanding of current efforts, RISE for Boys and Men of Color supported the exploration of nontraditional and unpublished work on intervention approaches, and policy and practice recommendations through eight field scans. Below are key insights from a synthesis of the eight field scans:

• Positive racial identity is significant in the formation of resilience of boys and men of color to individual and systemic forms of discrimination.
• Boys and men of color need support in reconciling mainstream and cultural understandings of success where they are not aligned or where indicators of mainstream success do not necessarily lead to individual achievements owing to the burden of discrimination. For example, one can graduate from high school and still not find a job, or one can avoid risky behavior but still get entangled in the criminal justice system.
• In addition to amassing more research on interventions that work for boys and men of color, there is also a need to construct research in a way that facilitates the understanding of the nuances within a population’s experience. New research must take the time and display the necessary conscientiousness to highlight the areas of intersectionality while engaging in interdisciplinary research designs.
• There is a need to acknowledge and address the dual power of norm prevalence. Deficit-based approaches in knowledge production and program design can reinforce negative stereotypes for boys and men of color. Strength-based orientations that focus on protective factors and resilience characteristics are important for advancing the effectiveness of work with boys and men of color.
• While it was fairly easy to find statistics on outcomes of boys and men of color, such as X percent are arrested or X percent are held back a grade in school, it was very challenging to locate statistics on the mechanisms that influence outcomes. For example, if X percent of boys are obese, for the Y percent who are not, which resilience characteristics and protective factors act as mechanisms?
• Male-only interventions have been found to be effective for boys and men of color.
• There is an unmet need for services and programs that are inclusive of gay, bisexual, and transgendered men and boys and male-of-center individuals.
• The color and gender of the staff used for interventions matter for boys and men of color. Women and nonminority staff play vital roles in tandem with minority male staff. More formal research on the effect of the gender of staff is needed.
• There is a lack of standardization of collecting race and ethnic data in both the academic and gray literature. There is also a lack of standardization in distinguishing findings by gender.
• There is a major gap between what is occurring in the field and what is published and available in both the academic literature and gray literature.
• There is an unmet need for interventions that affect systemic discrimination. Interventions that prioritize constructing forgiving environments in addition to offering self-regulation skills tackle both sides of the coin in supporting boys and men of color.
• There is an increasing importance of the use of social media in both outreach and programming in advancing outcomes of boys and men of color.

Learn more about RISE for Boys and Men of Color or read the individual field scans here