The Common Ground Project update

Encourage your boy to understand how he affects others—without starting a fight.

Exploring Positive Masculinity and the Changing Paths for Young Men A new study exploring how positive masculinity is understood in a school community, guided by two research questions, what does positive masculinity mean to young men, their teachers, and their parents and what are young men’s experiences of trying to adopt positive masculinity, relative to […]

Independent Education Magazine The Common Ground Project is helping boys ‘unlearn’ gender norms through the Foundation for Positive Masculinity’s program, writes Sue Osborne. IEU [Independent Education Union] members, especially female teachers, have reported an increase in disrespectful and offensive behaviour towards them in the classroom in recent years. And throughout Australia during 2024, 78 women […]

Encourage your boy to understand how he affects others—without starting a fight.

Dr Ray Swann joins Ashanti Branch to discuss the various roles we play as individuals.

Dr Ray Swann joins Ashanti Branch to discuss the various roles we play as individuals.

We are excited to announce that we've been named as one of the recipients of the Healthy Masculinities Trial and Evaluation (Healthy MaTE) initiative. 

Encourage your boy to understand how he affects others—without starting a fight.

We will be delivering federally funded free evidence-informed integrated programs to four schools in Australia.

Encourage your boy to understand how he affects others—without starting a fight.

Loneliness is a silent epidemic that is impacting the mental health of a generation of young people.

Dr Ray Swann joins Ashanti Branch to discuss the various roles we play as individuals.

Loneliness is on the rise for boys, but the good news is that parents can ease this pain by nurturing the “thread” of connection.

Boys contribute disproportionately to our behaviour crisis, but blaming them won’t fix it. Understanding the research can. 

A practical blueprint for engagement and behaviour in the classroom and beyond.

Practical advice for educators seeking to better understand and guide boys.

A conversation with Moana Hope

A significant investment to foster healthy masculinities.

This webinar has been shared by Understanding Boys There has been a lot of talk about toxic masculinity but there needs to be a conversation about its opposite: Positive Masculinity and how we help boys to learn healthy behaviours early and develop into good men. This raises questions: What does it mean to be a good […]

The concept of positive masculinity focuses on teaching boys and young men healthy ways of thinking and behaving as males.

By Prof Matt Englar-Carlson As a child of the 70’s, I had a sense that my boyhood was a slightly different world than my father’s had been. And now as the father of a teenager, I know that his boyhood is different than mine. Learning about masculinity can be a funny thing. It is in […]

Sample Curriculum Theme Introduction Connected Authentic Motivated Lesson # 0.0 What is +M? 1.1 Connected People1.2 Ways to Communicate1.3 Effective Communication Skills1.4 Connection in Sport1.5 Leadership – Connecting to a Purpose 2.1 Authentic People2.2 Who am I?2.3 This is Me2.4 Character Strengths in Action2.5 Seeking Help and Problem Solving 3.1 Motivated People 3.2 What Motivates Me? 3.3 […]

Working with Parents By Kristen Molloy This is a big question, but as we are learning today, discovering the answer to this is even bigger. Finding a way to normalise, encourage and promote these behaviours will have a significant impact on improving health outcomes for boys and young men. There are far too many inequalities […]

Positive masculinity What makes a good man these days? We live in a world where the idea of how we see ourselves as people can have an impact on our health. Our mental health impacts our lives significantly: from day to day interactions with others, to setting meaningful goals that help us to have a […]

Establishing a new definition of healthy, positive, masculinity. The Ilona Kickbusch Award winning paper Operationalizing Positive Masculinity has received a write up Developing Positive Masculinity by Men’s Mental Health Matters writer Nick Norman for US magazine Psychology Today.

One part of the film focuses on Oakland-based educator Ashanti Branch, founder of a youth-advocacy group called The Ever Forward Club who supports young African-American and Latino boys by helping them revise their ideas about masculinity.

Harvard Undergraduate Health Policy Review In this article, we highlight the importance of adopting a policy approach to address restrictive gender role norms for boys and young men and by taking a policy and systems lens, we acknowledge the structural nature of limiting frameworks of masculine self-expression. Abstract Rigid adherence to traditional masculine norms typified […]

What are the causes for men to not seek help regarding their health?

Prestigious Ilona Kickbusch award goes to paper on positive masculinity.

A review of divergent perspectives on positive masculinity Research into positive masculinity by Headmaster Ross Featherston, Dr Ray Swann, Kate Casey (Crowther Centre) and other educational experts has been recognised internationally, with an article on the school’s work in this space being published in the Health Promotion International Journal. Operationalising positive masculinity: a theoretical synthesis […]