For many young Black and Brown men, finding a place where they can talk openly about their emotions and make mistakes without feeling judged can be difficult. The B.R.O. Experience Foundation in Brooklyn is a community space working to change that reality by creating an environment where mental wellness, brotherhood, safety, and opportunity are at the center of these young men’s lives.
B.R.O. stands for Brothers Redefining Opportunity, a name that reflects how the organization approaches the support that they give Black and Brown men.
Founded by Barry Cooper in 2020 during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the B.R.O. Experience Foundation grew out of Cooper’s experiences working in education and social services. While working with the New York City Department of Education and Department of Probation, Cooper noticed a pattern among the young men he worked with: each moment of success that they had would not translate into their long-term stability.
Barry Cooper
Cooper began questioning why it was that some young men would graduate, find opportunities, yet then struggle to sustain them.
This led him to study educational psychology and cognitive behavioral therapy. He concluded that changing the way young people think could help them change how they respond emotionally and, ultimately, the decisions that they make.
“I wanted to create spaces where I could teach young men how to think differently,” Cooper said.
Six years after its creation, the B.R.O. Experience Foundation has grown into a full-fledged nonprofit serving more than 200 young men each year.
A Place Where You Belong
Through programs that focus on one-on-one support these young men are encouraged to examine how they personally understand their own experiences and learn different tools for responding to them.
Cooper said the goal is not to simply help these young men react differently when they are already in crisis, but to have the skills and support that help them recognize on their own when they need help, and be able to seek it.
“The person who sustains the success is the person who is mentally healthy to sustain the success,” Cooper explained.
That philosophy is reflected in the organization’s efforts to make conversations about mental health feel normal rather than something taboo.
At the B.R.O. Experience, therapy and wellness are integrated into their studio rather than treated as something that has to happen behind closed doors. Their goal is to make asking for support feel like a normal part of life.
That’s why the physical space itself is such an important part of the B.R.O. Experience. Cooper believes young men need places where they can feel a sense of belonging as they grow older.
“When you find that space that you feel good going to, you run to it,” Cooper said. That same sense of belonging fuels the trust the organization builds with the young men it serves.
Cooper believes that young men should not come to the space believing that they need to act like “superheroes,” but instead be given the room to grow.
Supporting Young Men Before Crisis
For Cooper, the organization’s work is ultimately about prevention.
He does not want families and communities to wait until a young man is experiencing a crisis to start searching for support.
Which is why the organization has a variety of programs for a variety of age groups. Like “Little Bros”, where students from second through eighth grade focus on their emotional intelligence and character development. While “Behind the Bars” has high school students use music therapy to express their emotions. Along with the “B.R.O. Project,” a 10-month program for young men ages 18 to 24 that combines cognitive behavioral therapy with personal development.
“Don’t wait until your little brother, your nephew, your son is in crisis to have him a part of an organization like this,” Cooper said.
The larger goal of The B.R.O. Experience is to reshape how communities think about investing in Black and Brown young men. They deserve to have places where they can be supported, heard, and given the opportunity to redefine what their futures can look like.
The B.R.O. Experience just announced their annual Extraordinary Men Awards event. People can purchase tickets, a table or sponsor the evening.
More info HERE.
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