Mentoring

Be a difference maker

The difference between kids who are motivated – full of hope and dreaming of success – and ones who are not, is simply a matter of putting them face-to-face and shoulder-to-shoulder with mentors, positive influencers and real success stories. In other words, people like you. The 100 Black Men of Chicago, Inc. is comprised of African-American men who were able to successfully navigate the path from adolescence to adulthood to become educated, successful, professional men of color. Our members have both a unique insight into the challenges faced by young African-American males and a desire to make a difference in our community. We serve as a bridge to help African-American teenage males span the canyon between adolescence and young adulthood. We use a “mentor-network” or “mentor-team” verses a “one-to-one” mentoring program. The team approach minimizes mentor/mentee compatibility problems, which could undermine the goals for both parties; also a team approach exposes the mentees to the diverse group of men, opinions, and points of view in our organization. Members begin as volunteers, demonstrating a willingness to roll up their sleeves and work. The volunteer goes through a background check and a series of interviews before becoming a member. Members are trained in “Mentoring The 100 Way®”, a patented training program developed by the National 100 Black Men of America after years of mentoring experiences. The mentoring calendar loosely follows the school year, from September to May, meeting weekly, at multiple locations around the Chicagoland area.

Our mentoring program in the Chicagoland area is free and structured for group mentoring. The mentoring program typically runs from September through May and includes students in grades 6 through 12. The mentoring sessions are held on Saturdays from 10:00 a.m. to noon. It is important to note that we do not have the staffing to mentor youth one-on-one or visit offsite schools or programs to meet with those schools or programs. However, if a student joins our program and is interested in a particular profession or needs advice in a specific field, we will connect them with one of our members in that field or use our network to find our resources.

About Brogrammers/DevelopHers

Brogrammers/DevelopHers is a collaborative robotics program between Chicago NSBE Professionals and 100 Black Men of Chicago, utilizing the FIRST Tech Challenge curriculum. 

The purpose of the program is to normalize black excellence in technology through creating environments that foster the unapologetic discovery, development and demonstration of the intrinsic creative potential within aspiring adults for the betterment of the community and the greater world.

FIRST Tech Challenge  teams (up to 15 team members, grades 7-12) are challenged to design, build, program, and operate robots to compete in a head-to-head seasonal challenges in an alliance format. Guided by adult coaches and mentors, students develop STEM skills and practice engineering principles, while realizing the value of hard work, innovation, and working as a team. Robot kits are reusable from year to year and can be coded using a variety of levels of Java-based programming. Teams design and build robots, raise funds, design and market their team brand, and do community outreach to earn specific awards. 

This year's seasonal game is Decode: Every artifact we uncover holds a story. Each tool, each innovation, each work of art connects us to the people and ideas that came before us. Using STEM skills and teamwork, today we can dig deeper into discoveries than ever before. Celebrate the season kickoff and game reveal on Saturday, September 6, at 12:00 pm ET

The program meets every Saturday from September 2025 to May 2026 at IIT's University Technology Park. Registration closes September 1st 2025.

Mentoring Sites

Listed below are 100BMC – Mentoring Site Coordinators, along with their contact information: