AMEND Together of YWCA NWO

AMEND Together of YWCA NWO AMEND Together is a primary prevention initiative dedicated to ending violence against others by engaging men and boys to become a part of the solution.

🔹 AMEND Together Monday – Week 9“Brotherhood Over Competition”🧠 Critical Thought Starter:What if we stopped competing—an...
04/06/2026

🔹 AMEND Together Monday – Week 9
“Brotherhood Over Competition”

🧠 Critical Thought Starter:
What if we stopped competing—and started supporting?

đź’¬ Reflection:
Men are often conditioned to compare, compete, and measure themselves against others. But healthy masculinity understands that there is enough space for everyone to succeed.

Brotherhood is built on encouragement, accountability, and celebration—not rivalry. When men support each other, everyone rises.

⚡️ This Week’s Challenge:
Encourage another man this week—without comparison, without jealousy, just genuine support.

🟦 Let’s redefine manhood together—one Monday at a time.

There’s a powerful moment in the film Rosewood that’s hard to shake.A young boy stands at a distance, watching his fathe...
04/01/2026

There’s a powerful moment in the film Rosewood that’s hard to shake.

A young boy stands at a distance, watching his father—along with other men from his town—participate in the lynching of a Black man. These are the men who raised him. Taught him. Shaped his understanding of right and wrong.

And in that moment, something shifts.

He doesn’t have the language for it.
He can’t fully explain it.
But you can see it in his eyes—

He knows what he’s witnessing isn’t right.

He is being confronted with a truth that challenges everything he’s been taught.

And later in the film, that same boy makes a quiet but powerful decision:

He walks away.

Not just from his father…
but from a belief system that had been passed down for generations.

That moment raises a question that sits at the heart of our next session:

What are the stories we’ve inherited about manhood—and what happens when we begin to question them?

Join us for Session 3 of the AMEND Together Professional Learning Series:

Unlearning the Lies of Manhood: The Stories That Raised Us and the Truths We Must Reclaim

đź“… April 8, 2026
🕛 12:00–1:15 PM
đź“Ť West Toledo Branch Library

In this session, we will explore how many of our beliefs about masculinity were never chosen—only inherited.

Much like racism and other harmful ideologies, these beliefs are often:

Modeled before they are explained
Normalized before they are questioned
Passed down before they are understood

Together, we will reflect on:

The messages about manhood we absorbed growing up
How those messages shape our behavior, relationships, and self-worth
What it takes to unlearn what no longer serves us
And how to replace those narratives with healthier, more honest truths

This session isn’t about blaming the past.

It’s about recognizing that moment—the one that boy had—
when something inside us says:

“This isn’t right.”

And having the courage to choose differently.

Because unlearning isn’t easy.

But it may be the most important step toward becoming the men—and building the communities—we were meant to be.

🔹 AMEND Together Monday – Week 8“Someone Is Watching”🧠 Critical Thought Starter:If someone modeled manhood after you, wh...
03/30/2026

🔹 AMEND Together Monday – Week 8
“Someone Is Watching”

🧠 Critical Thought Starter:
If someone modeled manhood after you, what would they learn?

đź’¬ Reflection:
Whether you realize it or not, you are a role model. Your words, reactions, and choices are shaping how others understand manhood. Boys and young men learn less from what we say—and more from how we live.

Healthy masculinity understands the weight of influence and chooses to model integrity, accountability, and respect.

⚡️ This Week’s Challenge:
Be intentional this week. Model patience, kindness, or accountability where others can see it.

🟦 Let’s redefine manhood together—one Monday at a time.

What happens when the values we claim… don’t match the values we enforce?Join us for the second session of the AMEND Tog...
03/04/2026

What happens when the values we claim… don’t match the values we enforce?

Join us for the second session of the AMEND Together Professional Learning Series as we explore a powerful and honest conversation about culture, accountability, and prevention.

Session 2: A Violation of Values
đź“… March 11, 2026
🕛 12:00–1:15 PM
đź“Ť West Toledo Branch Library

In this interactive session, we will examine how silence, misplaced loyalty, and selective accountability can allow harm to persist in our communities—and what it looks like to close the gap between the values we say we believe in and the standards we actually uphold.

Participants will engage in thoughtful dialogue around questions such as:

• Why do people often enforce rules in competition but remain silent in moments of harm?
• What does accountability look like when values are applied consistently?
• How can prevention work challenge cultural norms that allow violence to persist?

This session is designed for educators, prevention professionals, advocates, coaches, youth workers, and community leaders who are committed to building safer, healthier communities.

Registration:
https://forms.gle/FyjDGwmU9gLtuMRY6

We are also excited to share that this topic will be presented the following day at the OAESV Engaging Men Symposium on March 12 in Columbus, Ohio, continuing the conversation on engaging men and boys as part of violence prevention.

Walk-ins are welcome.

Let’s continue the work of aligning our values with our actions.

🔹 AMEND Together Monday – Week 7“Consent Is Confidence”🧠 Critical Thought Starter:Does your confidence respect boundarie...
02/23/2026

🔹 AMEND Together Monday – Week 7
“Consent Is Confidence”

🧠 Critical Thought Starter:
Does your confidence respect boundaries—or ignore them?

đź’¬ Reflection:
Consent isn’t just a conversation—it’s a mindset. Healthy masculinity understands that confidence doesn’t come from taking space, but from respecting it. It listens, asks, and honors “no” without pressure or resentment.

Respecting boundaries shows maturity, self-control, and empathy. It builds trust and creates safer relationships for everyone.

⚡️ This Week’s Challenge:
Practice asking before assuming—whether it’s time, space, or attention. Respect the answer you receive.

🟦 Let’s redefine manhood together—one Monday at a time.

Recap: Session 1AMEND Together Professional Learning SeriesThis Is Our World: The Burdens and Battles That Shape the Bla...
02/13/2026

Recap: Session 1
AMEND Together Professional Learning Series

This Is Our World: The Burdens and Battles That Shape the Black Male Experience
West Toledo Branch Library

On February 11, we launched the AMEND Together Professional Learning Series with 10 committed prevention professionals, educators, and community leaders gathered at the West Toledo Library for a conversation that was honest, layered, and necessary.

The purpose of Session 1 was clear: to provide context.

Before we can talk about accountability.
Before we can talk about intervention.
Before we can talk about changing culture.

We must understand what boys carry long before they cause harm.

We walked through four stages of development — baby, child, teen, man — examining the societal dichotomies imposed at each stage, the burdens created by those false choices, and the silent “heart cries” beneath behaviors. Together, we wrestled with the predator-prey dynamic, the impact of adultification, performance-based identity, emotional silence, and the question posed by Dr. Eddie Glaude Jr.:

“How do we make the boy who will be despised by the world not despise himself?”

Participants engaged in dialogue around how wounds become behaviors, behaviors can become harm, and harm can become cycles — and how prevention requires us to intervene upstream.

This series is about moving from awareness to action. And Session 1 laid the foundation.

Next Session
A Violation of Values

March 11 | 12:00–1:15 PM

In our next session, we will examine the lines we enforce in sports, loyalty, and competition — and why those same standards often disappear when harm is happening in real life.

We’ll explore love, loyalty, courage, and what it truly means to intervene.

Registration is open:
https://forms.gle/FyjDGwmU9gLtuMRY6

Walk-ins are welcome, but advance registration is encouraged.

If you are committed to prevention that addresses root causes — not just outcomes — we invite you to join us.

AMEND Together
YWCA of Northwest Ohio
Engaging men and boys. Challenging harmful norms. Changing the future.

🔹 AMEND Together Monday – Week 6“Mental Health Is Strength”🧠 Critical Thought Starter:Why do we praise physical toughnes...
02/09/2026

🔹 AMEND Together Monday – Week 6
“Mental Health Is Strength”

🧠 Critical Thought Starter:
Why do we praise physical toughness but ignore mental well-being?

đź’¬ Reflection:
Men are often taught to push through pain and keep going—no matter the cost. But ignoring mental health doesn’t make problems disappear; it makes them heavier. Anxiety, stress, and depression don’t mean you’re weak—they mean you’re human.

Healthy masculinity recognizes that caring for your mind is just as important as caring for your body. Seeking help isn’t failure. It’s courage.

⚡️ This Week’s Challenge:
Check in with yourself this week. If something feels off, talk to someone you trust or seek professional support.

🟦 Let’s redefine manhood together—one Monday at a time.

There are conversations we’ve been avoiding—not because they aren’t important, but because they ask something of us.They...
02/02/2026

There are conversations we’ve been avoiding—not because they aren’t important, but because they ask something of us.

They ask us to listen.
They ask us to look inward.
They ask us to reconsider what we’ve been taught about manhood, power, and responsibility.

Too often, when we talk about violence prevention, we start at the end of the story. But prevention requires us to begin much earlier—at the world that shapes boys long before harm ever occurs.

This Is Our World: The Burdens and Battles That Shape the Black Male Experience is the opening session of the AMEND Together Professional Learning Series, a four-part community learning experience focused on engaging men and boys, challenging harmful norms of masculinity, and advancing culture change.

Research shows that Black boys are often perceived as older, less innocent, and more threatening than their peers at a young age. Those perceptions shape discipline, opportunity, identity, and ultimately the choices young men are left to navigate. When we fail to understand that context, we miss the root causes—and the opportunity for real prevention.

This first session sets the foundation for the entire series, which continues with:
• A Violation of Values – examining love, loyalty, and the lines we refuse to cross
• Unlearning the Lies of Manhood – confronting the stories we inherited and the truths we must reclaim
• From Silence to Solidarity – moving from awareness to advocacy and action

This series is designed for prevention professionals, educators, coaches, advocates, and community leaders—but it is open to anyone committed to building safer, healthier communities.

📍 West Toledo Branch Library – Auditorium
🕛 12:00–1:15 PM
📅 Second Wednesday of each month (February–May 2026)

đź”— Register here:
https://forms.gle/7sFoaewkaPtJL1no9

Advance registration is encouraged to support planning, but walk-ins are absolutely welcome.

This is an invitation to reflect, to learn, and to do the work—together.

Please consider joining us, and feel free to share this post with someone who needs to be in the room.

📰 January 2026 | AMEND Together Newsletter – Issue 1We’re excited to share the first AMEND Together Newsletter of 2026! ...
02/02/2026

📰 January 2026 | AMEND Together Newsletter – Issue 1

We’re excited to share the first AMEND Together Newsletter of 2026! This issue highlights the powerful work happening across our schools and community, including an Ambassador Spotlight, a look at the impact of our facilitators, and a snapshot of how AMEND Together ended the first semester strong.

From leadership development and mentorship to retreats, Lunch & Learns, and after-school programming, this newsletter captures the heart of our mission—challenging harmful norms, cultivating healthy relationships, and creating positive change.

đź“Ž Check out the full January 2026 edition attached and see how AMEND Together is continuing to make an impact.

Address

1018 Jefferson Avenue
Toledo, OH
43604

Telephone

+14199021223

Website

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