Men's Conference to address youth violence

ERIC LINDBERG
DAILY SOUND STAFF WRITER

Initiating and mentoring boys into manhood will be the focus of Santa Barbara's Second Annual Men's Conference this weekend, now in its second year.
Organizers hope to foment a discussion of accountability, leadership and fatherhood among local men. Taking center stage at this year's conference is the role older men must play in mentoring younger men, an especially potent topic in the wake of an upwelling of gang violence this year.

"One of the few ways to really address the issues of youth violence and gang violence in general is to get more men involved in the mentoring and guidance of our youth," said Stefan Hermann, founder of Boys to Men Central California Coast.
Conference events will kick off this Friday with a keynote address by Dr. Malidoma Somé, a shaman, author and lecturer, at Victoria Hall Theatre in Santa Barbara.
Somé was kidnapped by French Jesuit missionaries at age four, imprisoned in a seminary designed to train a generation of black Catholic priests. After escaping 15 years later, he hiked 125 miles through dense jungle to his former home in Burkina Faso.
His only hope of reconnecting with his people, the Dagara, was to undergo a monthlong initiation process in the wilderness. Friday, Somé will speak on the concept of initiation as an antidote to violence and chaos, a way to remind young men of their purpose in life.
His keynote address, scheduled to begin at 7 p.m., will be open to men and women. Saturday's workshops and panel discussions will be limited to men only, Hermann said. Those discussions will focus primarily on issues of violence and anger among young men.
"You won't see a lot of trouble coming up through girls in teenage years," Hermann said. "It's 95 percent of young boys acting out."
One-third of all boys grow up with physically or emotionally absent fathers, he said, boosting their risk of becoming angry and violent, or emotionally absent themselves.
On Saturday, Dr. Aaron Kipnis, a professor at Pacifica Graduate Institute, will join Somé to discuss contemporary challenges facing men and boys. Filmmaker Frederick Marx will later introduce an excerpt from his latest documentary, New American Heroes, which focuses on boys who have been mentored into manhood.
"We're also going to look at the application of what we learned throughout the morning and how we can make practical use of that throughout the Santa Barbara community," Hermann said.
In its inaugural meeting last year, the conference drew about 45 men, he said. This year, he hopes to have closer to 100 show up.
"It is difficult to motivate men to come to these things because we are lacking that sense of purpose around these things," Hermann said. "But I believe a lot of men will get motivated out of the need for mentoring we have in this community."
The ManKind Project Santa Barbara, Boys to Men Central California Coast, Pacific Pride Foundation, Wilderness Youth Foundation, Santa Barbara Brotherhood and Everyday Gandhis are sponsoring the event.
Tickets are $25 for Friday evening's keynote and $95 for both Friday and Saturday events. For more information, call 907-9869 or visit www.mkpsb.org/conference.