“I grew up in a home around guns, gangs, prostitutes and drug dealers,” said Chapman, who became a mother at 15 and noted that she and her four siblings had different fathers. “I was around a gang and I did gang things—robbing and selling drugs.”
As a life coach for Memphis Allies’ SWITCH Youth program, Chapman, 45, works with participants who in many ways reflect her past: living with limited or no parental supervision, in harsh circumstances.
“I’ve been in those situations,” she said. “No food in the house, no utilities, thinking you didn’t have any other option, so you resort to the streets.”
‘Fully invested’
The streets have a way of catching up to you; they caught up with Chapman. She served four years in state prison for gun and forgery offenses. Even after she was released, she said it took another four years to regain custody of her children.
“A lot of trauma,” she said.
And that’s only part of the list:
In the seventh grade, she saw a friend gunned down in the streets
Just two years ago, she lost a stepson to gun violence
She has a 30-year-old son in federal prison, and a 19-year-old son currently facing a gun charge
“I’ve overcome it all by the grace of God,” she said.
Chapman not only understands the difficulties her SWITCH Youth participants encounter, but also the challenges before parents and other caregivers. Unlike the adult SWITCH program, participants do not come to Memphis Allies sites; staff go to the SWITCH Youth participants’ homes and work with the families, too.
SWITCH stands for Support with Intention to Create Hope, and that is exactly the attitude Sandra Chapman brings each day.
“I’m not coming to their door with book sense, but [rather] lived experience,” said Chapman, who added she is just a few hours short of a bachelor’s degree in business. “So, they can relate to me more, and I try to meet the kids where they are.”
Said Brittney Ragin, Memphis Allies’ director of clinical programs: “She’s fully invested in her participants and the community. That’s not something you can train. But that’s who she is.”
I let the parents and the kids know, this is not your end. We’re here to help you, and you can make better decisions
– Sandra Chapman
SWITCH Youth life coach, Memphis Allies
‘This is not your end’
Chapman’s past actions now drive her present ones.
“I feel like the things I did out in the street, I gotta give back,” she said.
Meeting with participants and their families, she often hears echoes from her own life.
“When I grew up, I didn’t know of a world outside our neighborhood,” she said. “As far as a restaurant, it was Wendy’s or McDonald’s. I just took a kid to Applebee’s. He’d never been to a sit-down restaurant.”
Recently, Chapman found herself sitting down at the hospital bedside of a teenage boy in the program. He had been shot multiple times, and none of his family members were present at the hospital.
“The kid begged me not to leave,” Chapman said.
So, she stayed for several hours until a family member arrived. There was nothing in her formal job description saying she had to do that, but she did.
“She’s very authentic,” Ragin said.
Day in and day out, Chapman wants to be the person who is offering what she never seemed to have: a vision for a better future, a real path to making that vision turn into a reality far from that world of guns, gangs and drugs.
She often starts by asking families a simple question: Are their basic needs being met?
“What are your barriers; what problems are you having?” Chapman said. “I let the parents and the kids know, this is not your end. We’re here to help you, and you can make better decisions.
“If you give them a little bit of hope, it goes a long way.”
