Men Can Stop Rape

Washington, DC
Contact Name: Dr. Pat McGann
Phone Number: (202) 265-6530
E-mail: info@mencanstoprape.org
Website: http://www.mencanstoprape.org
Key Words: (1) Male only; (2) high school and college age; (3) racially diverse; (4) university, high school, and community-based setting; (5) environmental change models
Population served
This community-based program targets both high school and college-aged males. It serves about 4,000 racially diverse students nationally through the local high school programs and the national college programs. Some of the Men Can Stop Rape (MCSR) programs, especially the Men of Strength (MOST) Clubs, involve work with young men from at-risk groups, such as the Boys and Girls Clubs. Recruitment of the high school and college programs occurs through indirect and direct outreach. Through the organization’s materials, web site, monthly newsletter, outreach packets, and school contacts, youth-serving professionals learn of the resources MCSR has to offer and invite the organization to conduct workshops and form MOST Clubs.
Medium used to convey message
The Strength Training Program (STP) offers a variety of activities and services, including Awareness to Action workshops, MOST Clubs, Community Strength projects, and the Strength Campaign.
The Strength Campaign, an original PSA and outreach project, was launched locally in 2001. It includes bus advertisements, posters in local high schools, a mini-magazine, guidebooks for school personnel, and workshops in the schools. The Campaign will be launched nationally in 2003.
Awareness to Action workshops and MOST Clubs involve discussions, role plays, and exercises, with a focus primarily on exploring men’s role in preventing men’s violence and on positively redefining traditional masculinity.
Goals, objectives, and desired outcomes
The program exists to move young people from bystander to activist in the struggle to prevent rape and other forms of men’s violence. Its specific goals are as follows: (1) to educate young men about their role as allies with women in preventing dating violence; (2) to promote positive, nonviolent models of male strength; and (3) to empower youth to take action to end dating violence, promote healthy relationships based on equality and respect, and create safer school communities.
Theoretical/ scientific basis for the approach
The Strength Training Program is grounded in an environmental change model that provides the blueprint for moving individuals and groups from the passive role of bystander to the active role of social change agent.
Level of evaluation
The program has not conducted much in the way of formal evaluation. Staff have conducted a series of pre- and post-test measures for the Strength Campaign workshops, which showed very positive results. The program has been in existence since 1997.
Staff capacity
There are five staff members, two of whom primarily conduct education/outreach. Staff members deliver MCSR workshops, sometimes with assistance from peer educators. The staff members receive regular training, and the peer educators complete a special training program. A board member donated evaluation consulting work for the Strength Campaign.
Approximately 40 percent of the funding for this program comes from foundations, but this percentage has been dropping. The economy has made funding from foundations unstable, but MCSR is increasing its fee-for-service activities to counter this problem.

For more information about Men Can Stop Rape, listen to our PreventConnect podcast featuring Dr. Pat McGann’s keynote speech for the 2011 Roots of Change Conference in Portland, OR.

What Men Can Do: Information sheet from Men Can Stop Rape