OREANDA-NEWS. Exelon announced that it has committed $3 million over three years to help fund a significant expansion of Youth Guidance’s Becoming a Man (BAM) program with a goal to serve 4,080 male Chicago Public Schools students this year. The expansion represents an increase of 30 percent over the previous year, or an additional 1,300 students. The program supports Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s three-year initiative to reach 7,200 young men from at-risk communities with high-quality mentoring opportunities and encourage them to stay in school.

“At Exelon, we believe that empowering young people is the key to creating opportunity and building stronger communities,” said Chris Crane, president and CEO of Exelon. “Programs like BAM prove that with investment and support, our kids can reject violence and instead step forward into bold and promising futures.” 

BAM is a school-based group counseling program that helps young men learn and utilize social cognitive skills, such as slowing down their thinking, considering the perspective of others and identifying and evaluating consequences before acting. The program model integrates cognitive behavioral therapy, youth engagement and rites of passage work. BAM's foundation is six core values: integrity, accountability, self-determination, positive anger expression, respect for women and visionary goal setting. Last school year, BAM served 2,751 young men in 50 Chicago schools. 

A recent University of Chicago Crime Lab study found that BAM reduced violent crime arrests by 50 percent, reduced total arrests by 35 percent and increased on-time high school graduation rates by 19 percent for male students at Chicago Public Schools.