Men Engaged in Nonviolence

MEN History
(click here to see the current MEN news)

December, 2003: Vishu Magee is asked to join the Board of Community Against Violence, but responds by sketching out the idea for MEN. He is asked to make the idea reality as a volunteer, and Men Engaged in Nonviolence is founded as a program of CAV.

July, 2004: Vishu describes to Donald Graham his idea for the Media Campaign, and Don offers his world-class photographic skills. David Doyle adds his inspired graphic design talents, and the Media Campaign is born. The three living mayors of Taos pose for the first photo.
August, 2004: over one hundred leading Taos men respond to an invitation to form the founding Leadership Group – mayors, editors, businessmen, radio broadcasters, priests and pastors, teachers and contractors. Seventeen men volunteer to become mentors. The Taos News volunteers ad space for the Media Campaign, and KTAO volunteers radio spots.

September, 2004: Men Engaged in Nonviolence is launched with the help of special guest, NFL Hall-of-Famer Ron Yary. Governor Richardson, Mayor Bobby Duran and the Taos School Board proclaim “Taos Nonviolence Week.” Elementary and Middle School art classes focus on nonviolence themes. 1,000 students and school staff take one-year pledges of nonviolence.

October, 2004: for the first time, men march in large numbers for the annual Take Back The Night event for domestic violence prevention, bringing First Lady Barbara Richardson to Taos as special guest.

November, 2004: Gene Weisfeld of Mentoring New Mexico trains the first crop of mentors. Later, Gene becomes one of our first Advisory Board members.

February, 2005: the first group of mentors complete their background checks and training and begin working in-school with their mentees.

May, 2005: anecdotal evaluations by teachers and principals indicate positive results for the mentees. Most elect to continue for another school yearJune, 2005: a group of five volunteers begins to meet weekly and self-train as leaders for the Tuesday Night mens group.

November, 2005: the Tuesday Night Group begins meeting weekly at the Chrysalis Alternative School, initially accepting adults as well as teens. Eventually we realize that men need a separate group, and we limit Tuesday Night to at-risk teens.

2005-2007: the three initial programs (Mentoring, Tuesday Night Group and the Media Campaign) are ongoing, but Vishu reaches the limits of what he can accomplish as a part-time volunteer director. The search begins for a new co-ordinator.

October, 2006: founder Vishu Magee receives The Taos News Unsung Hero Award in recognition of his work with Men Engaged in Nonviolence.
November, 2006: MEN receives its first grant (through CAV) from Los Alamos National Laboratories: $10,000 earmarked for the Mentoring Program.

March, 2007: Crispin Clarke is hired by CAV as MEN coordinator and in short order displays his passion and talent for the work.

July, 2007: Crispin and Vishu agree that to fulfull its mission, MEN must leave CAV and incorporate independently.

September, 2007: work begins on a business plan and strategic plan for the future corporation.

December 7, 2007: MEN is incorporated as a New Mexico non-profit incorporation.

January, 2008: the separation from CAV is completed, and MEN becomes operationally independent. The board of five begins to meet regularly and take on the business of a new non-profit, including initial fundraising overtures. Application for federal tax-exempt status is submitted. Crispin Clarke continues to administer programs as Executive Director.

February, 2008: the first Advisory Board members join up: Susan Embry, Gene Weisfeld, Donald Graham, and Paul Zelizer.

March, 2008: the Board expands to seven: Vishu Magee, president; Miguel Quintana, vice-president; Bill Kipnis, treasurer; Crispin Clarke, secretary; Peter Martinez, Rod Kaskalla, and Gus Gonzalez. Work continues on the business and strategic plans. MEN receives a start-up donation of $30,000. We begin to look for rented office space.

March, 2008: The Tuesday Night Group bestows its first-ever Youth Leadership Award to an 18 year-old boy for learning and demonstrating the fundamentals of nonviolence.

April, 2008: planning begins for a Mentors’ Banquet to be held June 12th. The purpose: to honor past mentors and to recruit new ones. The goal is to double mentorship from the current 20 to 40 by the next school year. We receive a challenge grant of $7,500 for the first year’s office expenses.

May, 2008: MEN takes an office space at 1337-M Gusdorf Road. The business and strategic plans are now ready to present, rolled into a single Prospectus which includes a three-year plan of perfecting The Men Model and the six Core Programs by the end of 2010. We are now ready to raise funds in earnest. The school year ends with a mentor/mentee field trip to the Wild Rivers Scenic Area.

June 12, 2008: the Mentors’ Banquet at the Sagebrush Convention Center is attended by seventy-five men. It provides dinner, dessert and music and features as speakers longtime magistrate judge Erminio Martinez, Middle School principal Alfred Cordova, past mentor Larry Mapes, and board VP Miguel Quintana. Awards are presented by Albino Martinez, with Vishu Magee as emcee. The Banquet produces two dozen potential new mentors.

July 15, 2008: we receive our IRS tax-exempt status.

August 1, 2008: Fritz Hahn LMSW is hired as Director of Programs.

September 1, 2008: responding to an incident of coach violence, MEN reaches an accord with the School District to review and rewrite the Athletic Handbook, and to develop a training progam in nonviolent sportsmanship for coaches, players and parents at all grade levels. Headline news in the Albuquerque Journal North and The Taos News.

September 10, 2008: the Tuesday Night Group is at full capacity in terms of both teens and adult leaders. We prepare to cycle some leaders into the middle and high school groups. Demand for mentors grows markedly.

September 15, 2008: we reach the goal of $100,00 to fund the original budget for 2008.

September 30, 2008: MEN submits its first grant applications for the 2009 cycle.

October 1, 2008: we reach our goal of forty mentors for the school year.

October 2, 2008: the first-ever female appears in our Media Campaign. Robert Mirabal appears with his daughter Kona to deliver the message “Fathers, cherish your daughters. Love and protect them.”

October, 2008: MEN is asked to help at the high school with teen pregnancy prevention and related issues. We begin to work this into the design of the Support Group and Fathering Programs. Staff and board members meet with Taos Pueblo personnel in anticipation of beginning mentorship at the Day School in early 2009.

October, 2008: Vishu responds to a request from the community of Chama for a radio interview, a session with Domestic Violence workers, and a presentation to Rotary.

November, 2008: Vishu presents at the first annual New Mexico Conference for Men and Boys. The Board expands to nine with the addition of J.D. Campbell and Joey Silva. The first “Nonviolence” column appears in The Taos News.

December 18, 2008: mentor and School Board president Arsenio Cordova leads 25 mentees on a walking tour of the Historic District to end the fall semester.

Photographs by Donald Graham