The Concerned Christian Men (CCM) is a 501(c)3 non for profit organization that was founded in October 1996 by George D. Glenn, a Harvard-educated native Chicagoan and a passionate group of local church going men. The rising rates of crime and the decreasing and depressing high school graduation rates of African American males in their community were apparent. Many of these men, who had both seen and participated in the civil rights movement, were brought to tears by the idea that future generations of inner city men could potentially destroy the communities they had worked so hard to build. This group of Christian men banded together to dedicate their lives to mentoring at risk youth.

 

CCM’s initial and continuing focus has been to provide strong “Black Male” leadership and guidance to young Black boys living on the South Side of Chicago to assist them in becoming positive, contributing members of their communities. CCM provides several free male mentoring activities for 4th-8th grade boys including a monthly conference, after school programs, and summer camp to young men attending schools with 199% free and reduced lunch student populations. The organization's main focus is to inspire the young men to become successful servant leaders that are empowered to rebuild their communities. This is accomplished by challenging these boys to become men of integrity, establish academic and career based goals, and give back to their family and community.  

 

Since its inception, CCM has reached over 42,000 boys and men at our monthly Man-Boy Breakfast Conferences. We have hosted over 174 of these breakfast and featured hot breakfast, breakout sessions, sports activities, and the greatest keynote speakers which have included several of Chicago's notable political, business and civic leaders, including Barack Obama (State of Illinois: Senator), Don Thompson, (McDonalds USA; President), Steven Rogers (Kellogg School of Business).

CCM has trained and mobilized countless Christian men to provide over free 26,000 hours of male mentoring service to youth on the South side of Chicago. We have designed and implemented more than 12 after school programs for more than 320 urban 4th-8th grade males at their schools, and coached more than 500 boys in our annual oratory contest designed to improve the presentation skills of our young men while exposing them to great historical speeches. 

 

CCM also uses an internally managed database to track the grades, school attendance, classroom behavior (reported by homeroom teacher), and participation in CCM mentoring programs of every student that participates in our programs each year. The young men receive points for these metrics during the school year. The top 45 point earners win a free 5 day summer camp trip to Allegan Michigan where the boys participate in leadership training sessions, basketball tournaments, biking, swimming, go-cart driving, archery and several other fun activities. In the last 10 years CCM has taken more than 400 boys to this summer camp. 

 

CCM has created service learning opportunities for high school students that are alumni of the program. Our average high school volunteer logs more than 50 hours of community service each school year. Many of these volunteers continue to excel academically and morally and high school and eventually receive college scholarships from our organization. Since 1996 we have awarded over $100,000 in college scholarships to program alumni. 

 

Other activities include:

 

 

• Man Boy Leadership Institute (MBLI). Our staff, volunteers and partners deliver after-school programming in several Southside elementary schools.

• The Annual John E. Everett Awards Dinner, held in June. We honor over forty boys for their Outstanding Accomplishments during the year, as well as volunteers, School of the Year and a service award for the outstanding business leader.

• The Annual Thompkins-Stimley Summer Camp, held in August in Allegan, MI. Forty of our boys earn scholarships to attend the Camp along with ten CCM men, a life-altering experience. Please view the Video to get a taste of the experience.

• Excursions: Over thirty field trips per year attending the ten major museums and colleges and professional basketball, hockey and soccer games.

• Optional Moral Training/Bible Seminars: Monthly Bible lessons designed to teach participating students about God as well as the work and teachings of Jesus Christ. These lessons are specially designed to help youth learn to love God, respect each other, and overcome negative influences they encounter every day.

• Vocational Saturday, held annually at Simeon Career Academy. We expose over 200 boys to potential careers in culinary, computers, graphic art, computer assisted design, electrical and auto body repair.

• An annual oratory contest. One hundred young men have participated in our oratory contests, some competing and winning other contests throughout the country.

• An annual stock market competition.

• The Chicago Public Schools are willing partners with CCM, contributing financial assistance as well as extensive in-kind services from the Board of Education in support of our programs.