Country Boys

Country Boys was the focus of a two-year community engagement campaign spearheaded by ITVS, in partnership with public television stations and national partner organizations. Focusing on the needs of at-risk youth, the campaign challenged communities to build and support mentorship and address substance abuse and other behavioral issues that threaten the successful transition to adulthood. Community engagement grants were awarded to 10 public television stations, including Kentucky Educational Television, KTOO in Juneau, Alaska and WTTW in Chicago, Illinois, each of which produced local community activities in support of the campaign. A national training and meeting of the partners was conducted at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and partner organizations worked extensively with Country Boys content in hundreds of community, professional, and clinical settings. We created a special one-hour DVD video module to support community organizing and education around this six-hour miniseries, and more than 1,000 DVDs were distributed to partner organizations and public television stations, including tens of thousands of discussion guides and other campaign materials. By the end of the campaign, thousands of new volunteers had registered for community mentoring projects. In addition, Country Boys content was included in the curriculum of the American Psychological Association’s Psychological Study of Men and Masculinity, and Health Ministries Association created a continuing professional education credit option for nurses and social workers.