What We Do

“LISTEN, ACCEPT, ENCOURAGE”

Our Mission

Boys to Men Southwest Colorado (BTM Southwest) is an authorized program of The Pinon Project – currently operating in La Plata and Montezuma Counties. Our work is primarily school-based and dedicated to providing positive role models for middle and high school aged boys. The work we do centers around weekly “check-in” circles where boys learn to support each other through the simple mentor-supported model of Listen-Accept-Encourage. This occurs in the schools during school hours and is complemented by occasional weekend outdoor recreational/growth activities and rite-of-passage adventure weekends. Through these activities our vetted and trained adult mentors impact the lives of boys in ways that increase friendship and connection while decreasing isolation and loneliness.

“When used in creative ways, mentoring becomes a living bridge between generations, a practice that invites youth fully into life.”

— Michael Meade

We were founded in January 2019 and our first school circles initiated in the fall of 2019 in Cortez and Mancos. Currently we operate under the 501(c)(3) umbrella of the Piñon Project of Cortez which acts as our fiscal agent and we are part of the national Boys to Men USA network that functions in schools around the country from Virginia to Hawaii. By agreement with Boys to Men USA, the long-standing Boys to Men North Central Arizona chapter, based in Prescott, serves as our chapter’s mentor.

At the present time we are mentoring circles in Cortez (Southwest Open School, Montezuma-Cortez Middle School, and Montezuma-Cortez High School); in Durango (Animas High School, Durango High School, Miller Middle School, and Escalante Middle School); in Mancos (Mancos Middle School); and in Bayfield (Wolverine Academy). Discussions are under way to bring Durango’s Big Picture High School into our program in the fall of 2024.