Impact Boom Podcast - Social Enterprise & Design · Impact Boom Podcast - Social Enterprise & Design

Episode 606 (2025) Melissa Abu-Gazaleh On Redefining Masculinity And Mental Health Support

·25 min·2 clips

Melissa discovered 80% of news articles about young men are negative, sparking her mission to build a culture of care.

Melissa Abu-Gazaleh, founder and CEO of the Top Blokes Foundation, discusses her organization's work improving mental health for boys and young men. Host Indio Myles leads a conversation exploring the systemic issues behind young male mental health crises and the solutions Top Blokes provides. Abu-Gazaleh started the foundation at age 19 after noticing the young men around her masking pain through drugs, alcohol, and self-harm. She cites a statistic that 80% of newspaper articles about young men were negative, recalling a specific front page that named and shamed nine young men for graffiti. Top Blokes runs mentoring programs for males aged 10 to 24, addressing mental health, anger management, drugs, alcohol, and relationships. Research indicates participants achieve four times the social outcomes and the program returns nine dollars for every dollar invested, with schools saving an average of $53,000 due to reduced suspensions. Their workplace program addresses findings that 40% of young male apprentices drop out, often due to mental health challenges, and that men are twice as likely to have job-related mental health problems but half as likely to seek support compared to women. Abu-Gazaleh argues that young men are often talked about but not engaged in discussions about their own well-being. She explains that traditional cultural norms socially penalize men for opening up, using phrases like "man up," which is reinforced in media and sport. A key insight is that young men today are increasingly comfortable seeking help, having seen the consequences for older generations who left issues unaddressed. The organization employs a "scale deep" framework, focusing on embedding within communities and altering systemic conditions rather than just expanding reach. A principle of "controlled growth" prioritizes financial resilience and preventing mission drift over rapid expansion. Through the AMP Foundation Tomorrow Makers program, Abu-Gazaleh learned that removing financial constraints as a primary concern allows for smarter, more innovative strategic decisions. She advises aspiring social entrepreneurs to avoid aiming for perfection initially, to be ready to pivot, and to invest in their own leadership development. The tone is educational and conversational, blending personal narrative with research-based findings and organizational strategy. This episode is ideal for social entrepreneurs, mental health advocates, educators, and anyone interested in youth development and gender-specific support systems. Listeners seeking highly theoretical discussions or critiques of masculinity frameworks might find the focus on practical program delivery less engaging.

As heard by us

A practical case for workplace support that treats young men’s mental health as an organizational issue.

The piece makes a clear case for treating young men’s mental health as a workplace concern. It works best when it shifts from visible signs like disengagement, conflict, and weak productivity to the support young men actually ask for: mentoring, social connection, and space to…

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Why you'd press play

A practical listen if you want a grounded take on controlled growth, team culture, and why some young men may need mentoring more than more pressure.

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