Welcome to the Young Black Men, Masculinities, and Mental Health (YBMen) project.

 

The YBMen project is an educational and social support program for young black men.

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The project serves as a mechanism through which we can learn about the strategies that influence and shape young black men’s ideas and experiences with mental health.

 

The Young Black Men, Masculinities, and Mental Health Project is a culturally-sensitive and gender-specific program that aims to address the pressures experienced by young Black men, with a specific focus on issues related to their masculinity and mental health.

 

The YBMen Project uses the social media platform, Facebook, to provide mental health education and social support to young Black men by using information and prompts from popular culture (e.g., YouTube videos, photos, lyrics, and current headlines).

 

Our team leads discussions by facilitating communication between participants through posts, comments, “likes,” and “shares.”

 

Preliminary results from our pilot YBMen Project with young Black men at Jackson College (Michigan) found that depression scores decreased among men who participated in the YBMen Facebook group but not among men in the comparison group.