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Our history · 2013 to 2025

It started with a
stolen car.

About sixteen years ago, someone stole Chris Scott's car. When the police asked him to identify the person who took it, Chris looked into the eyes of a kid, fifteen or sixteen years old, and did not see a criminal. He saw a boy with no one.

  • 2013Founded in Berea, Ohio
  • 13Years of Monday nights
  • $0Cost to any family, ever
  • 2015A 501(c)(3) nonprofit
How it started

One look, and he could not let it go.

  1. 01

    Someone stole his car.

    About sixteen years ago somebody broke into Chris Scott's car and stole it. The car turned up, and the police asked him to come in and identify the person who took it.

  2. 02

    He walked in ready to be angry.

    What he found was a kid, fifteen or sixteen years old. When Chris looked at him, he did not see a criminal.

  3. 03

    Three years later, Boys2Men began.

    He could not shake it. He had worked out what that boy was missing, and it was not a lecture. It was a man who would keep showing up.

A mentor and a boy working side by side at a table.
Three Boys2Men boys standing together outside.
A Boys2Men mentor with his arm around a smiling boy.
Somebody who keeps showing up
A Boys2Men mentor smiling with boys at a table.

“When I looked into his eyes, I did not see anger. I saw despair.”

Chris ScottExecutive Director & Founder, Boys2Men
The long way round

How thirteen years actually went.

From one room in Berea to an app in a parent's pocket. Free to every family from the first night to the last.

  1. About 2010

    A stolen car

    Chris is asked to identify the teenager who took his. He sees despair where he expected anger, and it stays with him for three years.

    A man helping a boy with a hands-on task at a table.
  2. 2013

    The first Monday night

    Boys2Men begins in Berea, Ohio. A room, a meal, and men who said they would be there and were. Free from the first night, and free every night it ran.

    Boys at long tables during a Boys2Men life skills lesson.
  3. 2015

    It becomes a real nonprofit

    Boys2Men Inc is registered as a 501(c)(3). EIN 47-3064258. The handshake becomes an organization, without becoming a bureaucracy.

    Boys2Men volunteers at the Boys2Men tent at a community event.
  4. The years in between

    Rakes, greenhouses, and a lot of folding chairs

    Community service projects. Yard work for neighbors who could not do it themselves. Trips. Cookouts. The unglamorous, repeated, ordinary work that actually raises a boy.

    A Boys2Men service crew with rakes after a day of yard work.
    A mentor working in a greenhouse garden bed.
    Boys2Men boys in front of the Heaven Train bus.
    A boy in a go-kart on a Boys2Men outing.
  5. Every June, through 2025

    The Kelvin Bouchie Byers Scholarship

    For years every June, the Trivia Bowl filled a hall in Berea, and what it raised went to scholarships in Kelvin's name.

    Boys and men gathered around tables in a hall.
  6. Now

    Men Mentoring Men

    The boys we started with are grown men. So Chris started a program for them too, under the same roof, because a man never outgrows the need for a good mentor.

    About Men Mentoring Men
    Men and teenage boys from Boys2Men standing together in a hall.
  7. January 1, 2027

    FORGED

    Everything thirteen years taught us, taken online. Free life skills for boys 11 to 18, led by the parents, guardians and mentors who love them, so a boy who will never reach Berea can still get what happened in that room.

    See FORGED
    The FORGED app on a phone screen.
In pictures

Thirteen years of showing up.

Lessons at long tables, leaves in October, go-karts, greenhouses and a lot of laughing. Tap any photo to see it larger.

A boy raking leaves onto a tarp.
A boy trying a virtual reality headset on an outing.
Boys sitting in a circle during a talk.
A boy working in a greenhouse.
A mentor and a boy working on a project together.
A boy in a go-kart.
Two boys in Boys2Men shirts at an outdoor event.
A boy concentrating on a hands-on project at a table.
A smiling teenager holding a rake during yard work.
A boy in a Boys2Men T-shirt.
A police officer helping in a community garden.
A boy working on a project outside a greenhouse.
A boy in a gym during a Boys2Men night.
Boys listening during a group session.
Boys hauling a tarp full of leaves.
A Boys2Men supporter with the team mascot at a football game.
Boys at a long table during a lesson.
Boys and a mentor in a group session.
A volunteer clearing leaves from a yard.
Two friends at a Boys2Men outdoor event.
Boys seated around the room for a group talk.
A teenager raking a yard.
Where they ended up

Boys become men. That was always the point.

College. The United States Army. Prom, a diploma, a first job. These are a few of the boys who sat at those tables.

A Boys2Men alumnus in cap and gown at his college graduation.
College graduateCap, gown and a degree
A Boys2Men alumnus in United States Army dress uniform.
The United States ArmyServing in uniform
A Boys2Men alumnus in a red cap and gown holding his diploma.
A diplomaHigh school, done
A Boys2Men alumnus and his date dressed for prom.
Prom nightWhite tux, big night
“I am a graduate of Ohio State University with my degree in social work. I recently started an entry level job at a foster care agency called, The Buckeye Ranch in Columbus, Ohio.”
A Boys2Men alumnusOhio State University, social work
A young man in a sharp purple suit.
Dressed sharpReady for the occasion
A young man in a patterned suit jacket and sunglasses.
Dressed sharpOwning the room
The people

Who runs Boys2Men.

A small team, a lot of volunteers, and the same founder since the first night.

Chris Scott seated with his grown children around him.
Executive Director & Founder

Chris Scott

Started Boys2Men in 2013 after the day he looked a teenager in the eye. He has led it ever since, and he wrote the book Rebuilding the Wall.

Meet Chris
Finance & Operations

Debra Scott

Runs the finances and the day-to-day operations behind Boys2Men.

Director of FORGED & Technology

Demetrious Reed

Leads FORGED, the free app that takes thirteen years of Boys2Men into every family's home on January 1, 2027.

Board of Directors

[TBD] board members

The full board list, with names and roles, is coming soon.

Why now

The world moved faster than a Monday night could.

A boy learns what a man is from whatever voice is loudest. For thirteen years we reached the boys who could get to Berea on a Monday night. We could not reach the boy two states over whose mother is doing this alone.

So we are taking it further. Same mission, wider reach. The Monday night room is resting now, and FORGED is how it comes back, free, in every family's home.

See FORGED
A boy trying virtual reality on a Boys2Men outing.

Every boy needs a good man in his corner.

FORGED puts thirteen years of what works in the hands of every parent and mentor. Help us launch it.

Give See FORGED