In an interactive format, this workshop will explore the process of male socialization – how boys learn about masculinity and the impacts their mental models of manhood have on their lives. Both the challenges and strengths of masculine messages will be explored, and ideas offered about how to raise boys to be good men.

Lowell Johnson is an educator with the ACEs Resiliency Coalition. His interests include healthy brain development through out the lifespan, and how gender socialization affects relationships in families and community life.

John Stiles is a pastor at First Lutheran Church in Brainerd. His interests include youth ministry and masculine spirituality as it relates to faith, sexuality and raising boys to men with a moral compass in today’s society.