This article first appeared in EdSource.

Gov. Gavin Newsom is calling on 10,000 young men to serve as mentors, coaches and tutors through a new campaign called the California Men’s Service Challenge.

The statewide initiative, announced Tuesday, is the latest in an executive order directing agencies to address mental health in boys and young men.

“We have an epidemic of loneliness, and so much of that is manifesting and metastasizing online in very profound and consequential ways, and last week only underscored that further,” Newsom said, referencing the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk at a Utah university campus.

In California, boys and men age 15 to 44 die by suicide at three to four times the rate of women, often by firearms. Almost half of female homicide victims are a

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