Caption: Briant “B Radical” Kelly, Memphis Allies SWITCH youth life coach
SWITCH Youth participant’s future starts with a huge step in the right direction
He was 16, sitting in Shelby County’s Juvenile Detention Center, when
“Kevin” first heard about Memphis Allies.
“From my homeboys,” he said.
Running with those homeboys had not worked out too well. They stole cars. They robbed people.
“You could be my closest cousin, and I’d rob you if I knew you had money,” Kevin said.
He started at 14, and along the way, guns were pointed in Kevin’s direction and shots were fired. Once, a bullet grazed his face. Another time, a bullet passed through his hair.
Confession: he was not stealing those cars and robbing people because he did not have enough to eat or because he was trying to pay his mother’s utility bill.
“I just wanted the money,” he said.
Now, at age 18, Kevin has gone through Memphis Allies’ SWITCH Youth program. He has graduated high school, completed a career readiness course and is enrolled in welding classes.
As he sits next to Briant “B Radical” Kelly, who was his SWITCH Youth life coach and still maintains almost daily contact, Kevin remembers those last moments before the next robbery or car heist.
“When it came down to it, I was the one having bad feelings, like the voice in your head saying, ‘Don’t do it,’” Kevin said. “When I talk to God now, I know it’s up to me whether I make a bad decision or not.”
True lies
Kevin came to Memphis Allies via court order, among his charges: attempted murder for his role in a robbery-turned-shootout.
“He was facing 52 years [in prison] when I met him,” Kelly said.
Kevin was fortunate the attempted murder charge was reduced to aggravated assault. He spent eight months on house arrest and recently came off probation.
But the clean start really began the day he met Kelly, who was once where Kevin was — getting pulled under by the lure of easy money.
“We clicked,” Kevin said.
“He’s become my little brother,” said Kelly, who is moving to Memphis Allies’ adult SWITCH program. “We got into a serious talk about the streets that first day, how to identify the truth and how to identify a lie.”
Said Kevin: “There’s more lying than truth out there. That idea of ‘no snitching’? That ain’t a thing anymore. And if a guy snitches, ain’t nobody gonna do nothing to him.”
The code of the streets turned out to be fiction.
So, too, the easy money.
“The quicker I got it,” Kevin said, “the faster I’d lose it.”
Kelly meets every individual where they are. And though he doesn’t say it this way, what he’s really saying to them is, ‘Can I do life with you?’
– Brittney Ragin
director of programs for Memphis Allies
‘Can I do life with you?’
God, Kevin said, wasn’t a new concept to him, adding, “I grew up in church.”
The messaging, however, never resonated. The clear separation between good and evil, right and wrong, and where those polar-opposite paths would take him never stuck.
Then, he started having those heart-to-hearts with his life coach.
“It became more understandable,” Kevin said of the way Kelly spoke about God.
Brittney Ragin, director of programs for Memphis Allies, said Kelly “meets every individual where they are. And though he doesn’t say it this way, what he’s really saying to them is, ‘Can I do life with you?’”
And so, just like a big brother, Kelly brags on Kevin for the good grades he got as he finished high school and the career readiness course. Kelly speaks about the glimpses of maturity he saw in Kevin even when he was still wearing an ankle monitor.
Kelly saw the potential. Now, the potential is being realized.
Kevin’s heart was hard. Now, it is softening.
“He literally wants to know about God and that character of love,” Kelly said.
Going through SWITCH Youth programming, which included counseling sessions with clinical therapists, also changed Kevin’s perspective.
“It can help you even if you don’t come from the streets,” he said. “It can help you get your mind right, if that’s what you want. I know now, I’ve got to be on a good path if I want a future.”
