California officials this September unveiled the California Men’s Service Challenge, an initiative led by the governor’s office of service and community engagement to recruit men as mentors and volunteers, officials said.

Josh Bridal, identified in the interview as California's chief service officer, said the program has seen early participation "—almost 1,000 men step up to serve in their community, to be mentors, to be coaches." He added that "we've had over 200 organizations come to us and say this is a real need," describing partner engagement as evidence of demand.

Bridal said the challenge was created because of the effect of male role models on young boys, and that the office is forming partnerships across the state to expand opportunities for service. "We desperately need men to serve in their community," he said, and emphasized that building those partnerships is a focus of the office's work.

On the initiative's timeline, Bridal cautioned that the underlying issues did not arise overnight and that addressing them will take sustained effort. "It will take time," he said. "Again, we didn't get into this crisis overnight, and it's gonna take a lot of work for us as a society to get out of it."

No funding amounts, specific partner names, geographic pilot areas or implementation deadlines were provided in the interview.