The Man Cave

The Man Cave has delivered transformative healthy masculinity programs to over 20,000 boys in Australia and we are ready to take our life-affirming work to the next level.

The Elevate Prize will allow The Man Cave to meet the global demand for our programs by accelerating our most exciting project - Man Cave Digital. 

Man Cave Digital is an EXPONENTIAL that synthesizes the best of our world-class programs into two ongoing online offerings that work with entire communities at scale:

Man Cave TV – a dynamic video platform that uses social media to connect young men with tools and role models that improve their emotional intelligence, relationship skills and connection to the world around them.

Man Cave Academy – a train-the-trainer online hub that empowers educators and role models in the mindsets, methods and tools our expert facilitators use to achieve our exceptional programmatic outcomes.

This work has garnered international recognition and support including The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Vanity Fair, The Telegraph, Movember and all mainstream media outlets in Australia. 

“It was life-changing & something I’ll never forget. Australia needs more groups like you.” - Grade 8 Student

Growing up I saw the most important men in my life go through years of anxiety, depression and even suicide. As I got older I also heard the stories of the most important women in my life, women who have raised and shaped me into the man I am today, and listened to their stories of sexual abuse and harassment. 

It didn’t make sense to me that the systems we had to deal with both mental illness and family violence were geared around crisis management and not prevention. A life-threatening injury on the rugby field shook me into action, and I’ve channeled my passion and focus into preventative work with young men ever since.

The Man Cave started in 2014, and we are now the go-to organisation for young men’s emotional intelligence, having delivered programs to over 20,000 young men across Australia. We’ve gained support from The Royal Family, Australia’s leading philanthropists, and receive global demand for our programs each week. 

Our vision is a world in which every man has healthy relationships, contributes to his community and reaches his full potential. Our intention is to make this a global reality.

The Man Cave is a preventative mental health and emotional intelligence non-profit that empowers boys to become great men.

We exist because suicide is the leading cause of death for Australian men aged 15-44. It’s not car crashes, drug overdoses or coward punches. The biggest killer of young men is themselves. Not only that, more than 1 woman dies every week at the hands of a man, and most of the time this is a man they’re close with, someone they trust.

This is a global narrative and it's time to act. Yet all we have seen is a crisis-management approach that intervenes when it is too late, where harmful beliefs are entrenched and lives already lost.

After working with over 20,000 boys across Australia, we fundamentally believe that these statistics are preventable through early intervention programs that focus on boys strengths, rather than their deficits.

Using evidence-based workshops and expert facilitation, our programs provide boys aged 12-16 with the critical emotional and social skills they need to lead flourishing lives for themselves, their relationships and their communities.

We work with boys from all backgrounds, ethnicities, orientations, and cultures, with 40% of our delivery to low-SES, Rural and Regional communities.

Right now, there is no a clear Rite of Passage for boys into manhood. Because of this, boys often initiate themselves into manhood, which usually results in risk-taking behavior to prove their masculinity (eg. binge drinking, conquering women or train surfing).

Current interventions are focused on crisis-management. Our approach is preventative and innovates through program design and delivery. 

Our programs provide boys with a safe, healthy and contained Rite of Passage into manhood. They are evidenced-based, work holistically with communities, take place longitudinally, and are designed in consultation with young men, Psychologists and mental health experts to be transformational experiences. We don’t believe boys need to be ‘fixed’, instead we empower them to explore and define their own healthy masculinity. We provide boys with essential tools and resources to support psychological and emotional development, and provide a safe space to put them into practice. 

The research is clear, when working with young men, the messenger is just as important as the message. Our delivery model harnesses diverse and relatable male role models from all backgrounds, orientations, ethnicities and cultures to facilitate our programs. Our facilitators represent the full spectrum of modern masculinity, because boys can’t be what they can’t see.

The Man Cave envisions a world in which every man has healthy relationships, contributes to his community, and reaches his full potential. This is the impact we want to have on humanity. Our mission is to empower boys to become great men by providing them and their communities with impactful programs, role models and resources.

Our programs are evaluated by frameworks designed in partnership with EY, research universities and government organisations. With 20,000 boys to-date:

• 87% reported they are now more aware of other people’s emotions and what it means to be a man
• 98% think our facilitators are relatable and awesome
• 95% would recommend our program to other young men

That’s pretty amazing for a program that asks boys to talk openly about their emotions! 

This is a direct result of our innovative approach and is delivered by providing boys with impactful programs, facilitator role models and ongoing digital resources. The Elevate Prize will support Man Cave Digital to bring our program outcomes to scale through ongoing digital resources and training of teachers and role models. 

“TMC's outcomes are materially significant when benchmarked against other similar interventions evaluated by EY” - Ernst & Young