Trust is earned, and Memphis Allies is earning it

In the spring of 2022 in Raleigh/Frayser, Memphis Allies sent its first team of outreach specialists into neighborhoods rife with gun violence.

Carl Davis, who is Memphis Allies’ operations director, and Trevon Toney, a training specialist who served time in federal prison on drug charges, were among the first to take up this calling.

As expected, they were met with resistance and suspicion: Who are these people? Are they conduits for the police? What are they really trying to do?

Toney even says the people in those neighborhoods, “They had every right to feel that way. That was one of our biggest hurdles.”

But just a year later—as Memphis Allies’ outreach efforts became more streamlined—a new pattern emerged: less pushback from the community, and less skepticism.

Part of that, says Davis, goes back to Memphis Allies refining its hiring practices for outreach specialists and providing more guidance to partner organizations that did outreach work.

“Today, we don’t have to worry as much about what the community thinks because we are the community,” Davis said. “Our outreach people, life coaches and case managers mostly come from the community that we serve.”

Youth Villages launched Memphis Allies for the express purpose of reducing gun violence.

“What we preach is, ‘Stop the killing,’” Toney said. “Our main focus is to stop the next shooting.”

Nationwide data shows that, on average, one shooting leads to four more because of retaliation. In Memphis, Toney, 47, believes the compounding effect is even larger, but it is difficult to quantify.

“It is impossible to put a number on the shootings that you prevent,” Davis said. “But every time we engage in successful conflict mediation, we know we have preserved life in those moments.”

What does stopping the next shooting look like?

Most often, it is a participant in the adult SWITCH (Support with Intention to Create Hope) program, or in the SWITCH Youth program, reaching out with a text or a call to someone at Memphis Allies. It might be an outreach specialist, a life coach, a case manager, or a clinical specialist.

Once in programming, which typically lasts at least 12 months, participants have access to all those resources and more. These personal relationships formed over time form the foundation of community violence intervention (CVI) work.

“People go to who they trust,” Toney said.

“Some of the guys have called their life coaches in a moment of crisis (when they are considering a retaliatory act of violence),” Davis said. “A year ago, two years ago, they might not have made that call. So, that’s an instance when we are preventing that next shooting.”

After starting operations in Raleigh/Frayser, Memphis Allies next offered SWITCH programming in Orange Mound, Hickory Hill, South Memphis and, most recently, Whitehaven. Binghampton and North Memphis are the next service areas. SWITCH Youth programming is provided citywide.

“Expansion is critical,” Toney said. “All neighborhoods run together. Memphis is what we call Kinfolk Corner. Memphis is the hardest place to work with because they are all family.”

The very name of the initiative—Memphis Allies—goes to the emphasis on collaboration and community partnerships. These are ever-expanding as Memphis Allies pursues relationships with smaller nonprofits already working in the CVI space in designated areas.

Two prime examples: Renardo Baker’s “I Shall Not Die But Live!” in Orange Mound; and Eric Watkins’ Red Door Urban Missions in South Memphis.

“We say it all the time and it is true: We cannot do this work alone,” said Susan Deason, executive director of Memphis Allies. “To achieve the reduction in gun violence that we all want, we must be relentless but also efficiently aligned.”

Early results are encouraging. In FY 2023-24, there were 409 participants in full SWITCH and SWITCH Youth programming. And most made significant progress, with 87 percent of program participants not receiving a new gun charge while in services.

Helping young people envision a brighter future

Toney makes no pretenses about the difficulty of the work. He recalls that of the first 10 high-risk guys that they identified in 2022, two were subsequently shot and killed and a couple of others were later incarcerated.

“Being present in the community is what we can do to stop the next shooting,” he said. “We try to be where the action is.”

Over time, Toney says they have reached more “shot callers” (higher-ranking gang members) as their LTO—license to operate—has grown. It is not an easy process, often requiring months of interaction.

But change is happening, albeit one person at a time.

“A lot of them don’t believe there is a path out of that life,” said Toney. “That’s what keeps them stuck. Memphis Allies brings them out of it and shows them life can be different.

“We had individual LTO,” Toney added, recalling the early days of Memphis Allies. “Now, we have organizational LTO.”

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