BOYS TO MEN
Keck School of Medicine students help young men stop the cycle of abuse and start living a life with purpose.
Fathers can teach their sons to be responsible, peaceful, compassionate and loving.
But for boys growing up in abusive or violent homes in East Los Angeles, acquiring these traits from the men in their lives might not be so simple. For some, father figures have only brought them pain; for others, positive male role models are missing.
That is why Keck School of Medicine of USC students and leaders from the LAC+USC Medical Center’s Violence Intervention Program (VIP) decided they should help the boys, one kid at a time.
The result: the Young Men's After-School and Mentor Program.
Started as a notion among a few students and Astrid Heger, M.D., executive director of the VIP, the idea percolated and has grown into a grass-roots program that links male Keck School future physicians with boys ranging in age from 5 to 17.
Danielle Rodin, a second-year Keck School student, was there at the beginning. Rodin began learning about the effects of domestic violence during her first year of medical school, when VIP social workers and doctors commonly talk to students about the signs and effects of violence and abuse.
The VIP offers a variety of mental health services in the community, including violence prevention visits to local schools and crisis services for sexual assault, incest and family violence.
Center staff members help more than 2,000 children and adults every year. Rodin wanted to contribute to the center's work, so she volunteered there during the summer—working in concert with therapists to listen to, and help heal, sexually abused pre-teen girls.
Around the same time, fellow second-year student Swapnil Shah—just as concerned about the effects of violence on families—began to volunteer at the center. He and Rodin agreed: Plenty of women acted as role models for girls at the center, but there were not many men around to talk to and befriend the boys.
"We realized we had all these boys [who had been] exposed to domestic violence," says Mary Morahan, director of clinical training at VIP.
Adds Rodin, "That's when the mentoring started."
Shah and Rodin got up in front of class one day and announced a program for male, second-year Keck School students who would volunteer to encourage and support boys from the community.
Now called USC Brothers, the official student group currently has about a dozen committed male Keck School students who meet with their "little brothers" at least once a week. Morahan oversees the mentors, who work with clinical social workers at the VIP and often attend the boys' therapy groups.
Shah and his fellow mentors erected a basketball hoop near the center and got sports equipment to play games with the boys; they also have taken the boys to a USC football game. Keck School student and mentor Shahin Chandrasoma also recently designed an indoor mural for the program, and painted it with the help of other mentors and boys and girls from the center.
In recognition of the effort—and to encourage it to grow—the Milagro Foundation recently donated $10,000 to the program. The Milagro Foundation was created by musician Carlos Santana and his wife Deborah Santana to support nonprofit community groups working with children in the areas of arts, education and health.
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