Community Engagement

About Community Engagement

In 2025, the Community Engagement team remained unwavering in its dedication to creating and sustaining meaningful partnerships nationwide. At the heart of our work is building with organizations to lift those up who reside at the margins of the margins and actively engage men to be part of the future we want to create. We have strengthened existing alliances and forged new, impactful connections, setting the stage for a dynamic and promising 2026.

Our team is committed to supporting partners as they enhance community engagement to realize our vision: a world where all men and boys embody love and respect, and all women, girls, and individuals at the margins are valued and safe. This year, we have contributed through specialized technical assistance, tailor-made training, facilitation of critical conversations, conference presentations, coaching, and more. We look forward to advancing this mission together with a broad spectrum of organizations, corporations, communities, and individuals—championing healthy masculinity and infusing joy into every aspect of our work.

Get in touch

Looking to partner with our Programs team? Reach out today.

Lina Juarbe Botella

VP of Community Engagement

Dallas Breakfast

In June, A Call to Men hosted the Dallas Breakfast, a special gathering dedicated to celebrating Healthy Manhood and our collective efforts to build healthier, more authentic communities.

The event brought together community advocates, faith leaders, educators, corporate partners, and local change-makers for a morning of connection and conversation. Together, we explored what it means to build communities where men and boys are loving and respectful, and women, girls, and those at the margins of the margins are valued and safe.

One of the highlights of the morning was our Community Connections section. This part of the program gave local partners a chance to introduce themselves, share the work they’re doing, and connect directly with attendees. It was a great way to spotlight the resources available in Dallas and strengthen relationships across the community.

This is the section here where we can include a quote or testimonial from one of our partners.

text

FIRST LAST

ORGANIZATION

Leadership Academy Gatherings

In 2025, Community Engagement continues to welcome new voices into the work while also nurturing the ongoing allyship journeys of our Leadership Academy Alumni. Through quarterly touchpoints, alumni shared how their Leadership Academy experiences are shaping their approach today, while creating a collective space for connection, support, and accountability. These gatherings deepen relationships and open room to imagine the future we want to build together.

Add a title and date for this gathering

Add a title and date for this gathering

API GBV & A Call to Men

In 2025, Community Engagement continues to welcome new voices into the work while also nurturing the ongoing allyship journeys of our Leadership Academy Alumni. Through quarterly touchpoints, alumni shared how their Leadership Academy experiences are shaping their approach today, while creating a collective space for connection, support, and accountability. These gatherings deepen relationships and open room to imagine the future we want to build together.

“A Call To Men (ACTM) has been an invaluable partner to us, both personally and professionally. While we all recognize the urgent need to engage men and boys in ending gender-based violence, there are very few resources available. As our organization was still new to this work, we were unsure where to begin. With growing interest among our partner organizations, we committed to providing a technical assistance (TA) guide they could use.

ACTM stepped in at just the right time. They facilitated a community conversation with our partners that created a long-awaited space to talk, brainstorm, and seek support. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive, and participants made it clear they had been waiting for this dialogue. ACTM conducted listening sessions with our AANHPI and MENA communities (Asian/Asian American, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, Middle Eastern, and North African). The resource they created reflected the voices and experiences of our communities, and the process was marked by ACTM’s care, passion, and understanding. We are deeply grateful for ACTM’s support. We wholeheartedly recommend them to anyone, whether new or experienced in this field.”

text

Matapuna Levenson, MSW - Project Manager & Chisato Horikawa, MSW - ARP Support for Survivors Program Coordinator

The Asian Pacific Institute on Gender-Based Violence

Mortgage Bankers Association

In 2025, Community Engagement continues to welcome new voices into the work while also nurturing the ongoing allyship journeys of our Leadership Academy Alumni. Through quarterly touchpoints, alumni shared how their Leadership Academy experiences are shaping their approach today, while creating a collective space for connection, support, and accountability. These gatherings deepen relationships and open room to imagine the future we want to build together.

Illinois Coalition Against Domestic Violence VTI

A Call to Men’s Virtual Training Institute for Gender and Racial Justice (VTI) continues to provide accessible, in-depth coaching and education to help advocates, community members, educators, and corporate leaders create meaningful impact in their work and allyship practice. In May 2025, the Community Engagement team partnered with the Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault (ICASA) to host a Virtual Training Institute for Gender & Racial Justice. This collaboration brought together advocates and leaders from across the state for an engaging and impactful learning experience.

Familia Circle

At A Call to Men, we have dedicated intentional monthly space for staff and trainers who identify within the Latine/x spectrum to gather in collective community. Recognizing that many of us hold multiple identities—some of us are actively exploring, connecting to, or learning about our Latinidad, cultures, stories, and ancestral roots—these gatherings are open and inclusive space, regardless of where or how they situate themselves within this cultural spectrum. Our aim is to create a nurturing environment where the exploration of identity becomes a shared, beautiful journey.

We come together to think freely, articulate our aspirations, address our needs, and simply share presence as Latine/x individuals. Our conversations have ranged in topics from healing, personal and collective responsibilities, relationships to Indigenousness and Blackness, well-being and rest as righteous, unapologetic acts, proximity to whiteness, the impacts of anti-Blackness, and nuanced definitions of Latinidad. We center joy, laughter, and communal care—honoring that this time is, first and foremost, for us.

We hold true to the belief that La Cultura Cura—Our Culture Heals Us. We encourage other organizations to cultivate similarly brave spaces, recognizing their power and necessity for genuine collective liberation.


A Call to Men’s Familia Circle is a place where we witness each other tell our stories and connect to our histories. It’s a place where we can connect to the roots of how we promote healthy manhood in our communities and be the work of ending violence against ALL women and girls. We go deeper to the heart of this work. It’s a place where we don’t throw anyone away. It’s a place of grace and loving accountability. It has been such an important part of the work and my development as a trainer for A Call to Men’s larger mission.

text

Dr. Bobby Yamocani Casiano

Middlesex County Critical Conversation Series & Conference on Behavioral Health

In 2025, the Community Engagement team strengthened our collaboration with the Middlesex County Division of Addictions and Mental Health Planning and its extensive network of clinicians, counselors, social workers, case managers, and other direct mental health service providers in New Jersey. Throughout the year, we developed and delivered immersive virtual trainings that facilitated learning through engaging small and large group discussions.

Additionally, we launched a comprehensive educational initiative—the Critical Community Conversation series—covering key topics such as strategies for community engagement, healing through storytelling, and an in-depth exploration of providers’ responsibilities as human service providers.

To conclude the year, we organized a focused one-day virtual conference on Behavioral Health, Hope, and Healing. Deepening Your Roots is designed for mental health professionals and community leaders. The conference fostered peer support and collective resilience, equipping participants to promote healing and positive change in the communities they serve.

Through these engagements, we’ve been able to cultivate deeper relationships within the New Jersey community and create space for critical dialogue that blends facilitation, learning, and reflection.


Community College of Baltimore County Critical Conversation

Participants engaged in a virtual training that examined how systemic structures shape and restrict the agency of Black and Brown people across work, community, and social environments. The training also expanded this lens to include gender and LGBTQ+ identities, highlighting the ways interconnected systems influence opportunity and access.

Through a mix of critical discussions and interactive activities, participants explored how these systems impact economic well-being, financial mobility, and one’s ability to fully self-determine. The session equipped participants with a deeper understanding of the barriers created by the Man Box and the tools needed to begin disrupting those patterns in their own spheres of influence.


New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services

A Call to Men is working with the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services under a new initiative called Statewide Targeted Reductions in Intimate Partner Violence (STRIVE) is designed to equip law enforcement agencies (police departments and sheriff’s offices), probation departments, district attorneys, domestic violence service providers, and other partnering agencies with the tools, training, resources, and strategic support to reduce intimate partner violence. A Call to Men is offering a more comprehensive view of the traditional Community Coordinated Response Team (CCR) that prioritizes prevention, lessens isolation, centers community engagement and support, and increases individual and community safety. It is an invitation for all participating in CCR work to use their influence and platform to be part of the solution.

COMMS - DCJS - Pictures after 10/10

The Hotline

Not until October 2025

Create a free website with Framer, the website builder loved by startups, designers and agencies.