Founder Tim Jones ‘knows how to reach the streets’

The first time Carl Davis saw him, Tim Jones was on stage at a Holy Hip-Hop event in North Memphis.

“Giving his testimony, being relatable to the crowd,” said Davis, who is Memphis Allies Operations Director. “He was rapping, telling a real story, just without the cursing. He was giving the glory to God.”

That was in 2010. Two years later, Davis joined Jones to perform gospel rap on “Good Morning Memphis.”

“Tim’s was one of the first names I wrote down,” Davis said.

Now, Jones’s “Big Homie” organization is partnering with Memphis Allies.

Jones had started his own outreach effort in 2012. Big Homie will be a SWITCH – Support With Intention To Create Hope – implementing partner focused on South Memphis.

“This is the first time I’ve partnered with somebody,” said Jones. “Memphis Allies said, ‘Keep your vision, let’s do this work together, we don’t want you to drop your name.’

“That’s unprecedented.”  

Jones, 40, knows personally about the risk of gun violence in Memphis. When he was a teenager, he was shot in the leg as he was leaving a night club.

One statistic driving this urgent CVI work: on average, one shooting in the city leads to four more. When Jones was shot, he had a pretty good idea who was on the other end of the gun.

“It was another one of those God moments,” Jones said, recalling how close he came to choosing another path. “I can remember seeing the guy, I’m carrying, and I want to do it, and it’s just this thought … ’

“‘I know that was God,’” said Jones. “Four other guys got shot that night. I’m glad I didn’t do anything because it’s one of those things I can share with youth now.

“You don’t have to avenge it.” 

Although his street life also included selling weed for a major drug dealer, Jones walked near the flames but only sustained minor burns.

He says he was never caught with a gun, never charged with intent to distribute, and only did time in county jail and not in state or federal prison.

Years later, he ran into another guy that was involved in that nightclub shooting. Jones treated it as a heaven-sent opportunity.

“I said, ‘Man, listen, I forgive you.’ I shook his hand and we hugged,” Jones recalled. 

“It was like a milestone in my life. I knew I had to forgive these people because I had been forgiven.” 

Over the years, Jones has done other community intervention work, including a stint with the G.R.A.S.S.Y. (Gang Reduction Assistance for Saving Society’s Youth) program in Memphis Shelby County Schools.

Every time Jones goes into the city’s poorest neighborhoods, he is saddened by the lack of aspiration there and how easy it is to fall into the life he once led. It drives him harder to help make a difference.

“He knows how to reach the streets,” Davis said.

The Big Homie-Memphis Allies partnership, Jones believes, will allow that reach to extend even further.

“Caterpillar to a butterfly, and never going back,” he said. “That what this partnership has afforded to a small organization.” 

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