WATCH: Newsom, others call on young men to volunteer

Audio By Carbonatix

(The Center Square) – Gov. Gavin Newsom and other officials stood together Tuesday at a high school and called for thousands of young men across California to make a difference.

“The California Men’s Service Challenge is calling on 10,000 young men to step up and serve their community,” said Josh Fryday, director of the Governor’s Office of Service and Community Engagement, at Florin High School in Sacramento.

The initiative calls on young men to serve as coaches, mentors and tutors through the California Service Corps and partner organizations such as Improve Your Tomorrow, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Mentor California, the YMCA of Metropolitan Los Angeles, the Giants Community Fund, and the American Institute for Boys and Men.

The project is intended to address a mental health crisis while creating paths for leadership, purpose and belonging, according to Newsom's office.

Information about the California Men's Service Challenge is posted at californiavolunteers.ca.gov/mens-service-challenge.

The project is an important means of giving young men a sense of purpose in a state where suicide rates among the demographic have grown, Fryday said at the news conference, which streamed live on the governor's YouTube page. 

“We have a crisis in this country of men and boys,” Newsom told reporters and others at Florin High School.

He noted young men are more likely to commit suicide than young women and are dropping out of school.

“For decades, we’ve neglected it. We felt it was a zero-sum game, that if we focused on the needs and men and boys, we’re taking advocacy away from women and girls,” Newsom said.

The governor noted the needs of all young people can be met.

"Too many young men and boys are suffering in silence, disconnected from community, opportunity and even their own families," he said. "This action is about turning that around. It’s about showing every young man that he matters, he has purpose, and he has a community."

One of every three young people is growing up without someone they can call a mentor, said Marcus Strother, executive director of Mentor California. “On the other side of that, a young person who is mentored will most likely succeed in school, most likely find their career trajectory, most likely step into leadership roles.

“Young men who know they are loved, know they are seen – they do better,” Strother said.

Adam Allen, who’s from Bakersfield and moved to Sacramento around 2013 and attended Valley High School, said he was rebellious and not doing well until mentorship changed his life.

“For me, it took about three years. Around the third year, I started getting good grades,” said Allen, who went on to earn a bachelor’s in history at University of California, Merced.

He's a mentor with Improve Your Tomorrow.