Firefighter, paramedic, emergency room doctor … dedicated professionals who put others first and often perform heroics. Their very job descriptions demand that they carry heavier loads of stress.
The same is true for Memphis Allies’ frontline staff.
“They do work that other people turn their faces away from,” said Dr. Archandria Owens, a licensed psychologist who is partnering with Memphis Allies and is the founder of The Collective Healing Space. “They’re first-line responders working to make Memphis safer.”
With April being National Stress Awareness Month, it is a good time to consider the stress that gun violence intervention professionals encounter daily. Despite the stress, they are having an impact: this is evident in the city’s 46% reduction in murders from 2023 to 2025, and that 91% of participants at the highest risk for gun violence have not picked up a new gun charge while in programming.
But as happened with other gun violence intervention (GVI) organizations across the country, Memphis Allies staff have felt the pain of losing participants to gun violence, too.
“You have staff working directly with participants and it hits them with a different impact to know they lost a life from the very thing they were trying to protect them from,” said Portia Williams, a placement manager for Memphis Allies and a TeamCARE ambassador.
In fact, most Memphis Allies’ frontline staff have experienced gun violence on a personal level. They have family and/or friends who have been shot or shot at or, years earlier, they were shot or shot at.
Jemera Lloyd, a community relations coordinator for Memphis Allies, lost her 25-year-old brother in 2023 to gun violence in her hometown of Jackson, Miss.
“It was heartbreaking,” Lloyd said. “I just shut down. I’m not going to be the last person to lose someone.”
What’s beautiful is that a lot of people are having therapy for the very first time.
Dr. Archandria Owens
A licensed psychologist, founder of The Collective Healing Space.
Therapy for the first time
Brittney Ragin is director of clinical programs for Memphis Allies. The wellness initiative for staff, she said, started a couple of years ago as it became clear that symptoms of PTSD, or post-traumatic stress disorder, were not uncommon.
“If you have lived experience, you have significant trauma,” Ragin said. “And it’s unique in that your trauma is why you’re doing this work.”
Of Memphis Allies’ 225 full-time staff members, Ragin said about one-third have taken advantage of the free therapy sessions through TeamCARE. That is significant.
“It’s a stigma in the African American community to go to therapy,” Williams said.
“What’s beautiful is that a lot of people are having therapy for the very first time,” Dr. Owens added. “People talk about things they might not be able to talk about with their friends and family. It’s such a gift to work with Memphis Allies; it’s what I feel I’m called to do.”
‘Let their hair down’
Grief can hit staff in a number of ways. It can be a participant or former participant losing his life due to gun violence or an illness. It can be the arrest of a former participant who fell back into old patterns.
“It’s compassion fatigue,” Dr. Owens said. “The art and science of caring for people can be a lot. They are in chronic, acute, situations. A lot of what I hear is, ‘participants just have incredible needs.’”
TeamCARE utilizes a resiliency model, which has four components: spiritual, emotional/mental, physical, and social. Each month, there’s programming to address those four elements.
Socialization is an integral part of the program. Staff are encouraged to attend events, such as bowling and skating get-togethers. On the upcoming calendar: friendly basketball and volleyball competitions, step challenges, and family nights.
“The social piece,” Williams said, “is just for them to let their hair down.”
On the spiritual side, every Thursday local pastors offer virtual devotions.
“Even when I’m on off, I tune into the word,” Lloyd said. “I know somebody’s going to lift me up from the hard week I’ve already had.”
It is, after all, hard work.
Relentless work.
Personal work.
“I don’t know if I can always guide them perfectly, but they need to be gentle with their own grief,” Dr. Owens said, “because there’s always another participant who needs help.”
