During last month’s Mental Health Month, mental health social enterprise Tomorrow Man was awarded a share of a $3.5 million government grant focused on fostering healthier masculinities among Aussie schoolboys
The federal government announced Tomorrow Man, as part of a consortium with the Foundation for Positive Masculinity (+M Foundation) and SNA Toolbox, as the recipient of part of its healthy masculinities project trial grant, aimed at addressing and combating the rise of harmful gender stereotype messaging targeting school-aged boys and young men online.
SNA Toolbox is an innovative social technology firm dedicated to revolutionising the education sector. The company specialises in leveraging social network analysis to uncover and utilise the hidden social capital within secondary schools and higher education institutions. Believing in the power of connectedness, SNA Toolbox aims to foster a greater sense of community within educational institutions. Their unique approach enhances student wellbeing and performance by understanding not only individual factors but also the significant impacts of peer influence.
The Foundation for Positive Masculinity (+M Foundation) has a mission to promote the prevention and control of behaviours that are harmful for boys and young men to ensure that boys and men are connected, authentic and motivated. The Foundation pursues this mission through education and training, research and partnerships.
Finding common ground to teach and role-model healthy masculinity
Focused on year levels seven to 11 across four nationally representative schools, the trio’s plan, The Common Ground Project: Future Fit Masculinities, will, over the next three years, establish evidence-based activities and programs that encourage healthy expressions of what it means to be a man today and tackle social attitudes and behaviours that drive violence against women and children.
“We are honoured to be part of the team selected to not only encourage respectful relationships among approximately 3,000 participating students, but also eventually provide the Australian Government with proven ways to implement and scale an effective healthy masculinities program across the country, stopping gender-based violence before it starts,” say Tomorrow Man Co-Founders, Tom Harkin and Paige Campbell.
This announcement comes following multiple nationwide protests against gender-based violence, triggered by an increase in the number of women killed, allegedly at the hands of men, so far this year. In October 2024, that number stood around at least 55. Adding to the urgency of the situation, many more people are still trapped in harm’s way, with one in four women and one in 14 men having experienced physical and/or sexual violence from an intimate partner from as young as the age of 15.
Tomorrow Man was established in 2017 and aims to disrupt traditional male stereotypes and provide men with the real-life capabilities to develop stronger mutually supportive relationships, express their emotions in healthy ways when under pressure and, most importantly, give them the ability to ask for support when they need it.
Workshops address harmful stereotypes
The Common Ground Project will comprise a number of key elements, including Tomorrow Man’s in-person workshops that examine the impact of harmful stereotypes on participants and others, unpack the dynamics of privilege and power, expand participants’ comprehension of intimacy, and delve deep into the challenges confronting women and girls.
“With easy access to a wide range of online platforms, more and more misogynistic influencers are targeting boys and young men, in particular, and exposing them to the traditional messaging that they are the dominant gender and that showing emotion is emasculating, which is simply not true,” Harkin says.
“At the ages of 13 and 14, these ideologies might seem harmless to their believers. But as these boys get older and carry such narrow stereotypes into manhood, it increases the risk of them harming themselves and the people around them. Building empathy and understanding among young men regarding women’s experiences is crucial for addressing and ultimately, eradicating gender-based violence.”
In addition, the mental health social enterprise will use its TikTok channel to provide relatable instructional content to help young people navigate the ups and downs of their lives, as a continuation from their learnings in the workshops.
“Over the years, our workshops have proven that training men in the tools that enable them to live healthier emotional lives has positive outcomes for themselves and the people they live with and love,” Harkin says.
“However, we understand how hard it will be to push against societal expectations once students leave the safe spaces we create in our workshops. This is why it is important for us to provide such additional support via one of the most used social media platforms among young people right now.”
Equipping teachers and families with tools to support young people
Facilitated by Tomorrow Man, its sister enterprise, Tomorrow Woman, and +M Foundation, additional workshops will be conducted with the participants’ parents/guardians and teachers, to help equip them with the tools they need to better support their students. These additional workshops will also extend participants’ female peers, to strengthen positive, equal and respectful relationships between women and men.
The two organisations’ highly skilled facilitators are no strangers to this multi-touch approach. Since being founded by Campbell and Harkin, Tomorrow Man and Tomorrow Woman have been working closely together to make sure that they integrate the female perspective into their men’s programs and vice versa. Together, they have utilised peer culture to impact over 250,000 individuals via more than 8,000 workshops across Australia.
Harkin says The Common Ground Project won’t involve just male students.
“What makes The Common Ground Project stand out is we – Tomorrow Man, +M Foundation and SNA Toolbox – know the power of human connection and appreciate that life is a team sport. Changing individual attitudes and behaviours can only go so far if the social connections between young men and their communities remain stagnant.”
