UK: Equality workshops teach boys to be empowered, not ashamed

Article here. Excerpt:

'It’s long been recognised that the teenage years are a particularly troubling time. During these formative years, young adults become more engaged in the external and online world; the nature of their relationship with the opposite sex – and their own – changes, all while they are striving to find their own identity.

To help teenagers navigate this difficult period, a series of workshops are offered around the country by various different organisations. As the manager of the Great Men project, which runs participant-led activities in schools to help teenagers explore the expectations placed upon boys and girls, it's a landscape I know well. So I was disappointed to read Dan Bell's article on these pages earlier this week, in which he argued that workshops such as the ones we run seek to make boys feel ashamed and guilty about their gender.
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Our male volunteer workshop facilitators are specially trained to ensure they encourage free discussion and not to put across their own agenda or views. Using external facilitators such as ours allows boys to speak more openly about the sensitive issues they are considering, and to think about how they will react, free from fear or lecture. Issues discussed at our workshops include: sexual consent; healthy relationships; homophobia; violence; porn; the influence of the media; and male mental health and suicide.'