Memphis Allies participants on a better path say there’s no turning back now

Going through Memphis Allies’ SWITCH program model takes more than one path. That is, no two participants experience the same exact journey.

But they always have one thing in common. Somewhere along this journey, they undergo a significant change in mindset.

The evidence to back this up: 90% of SWITCH participants have not incurred a new gun charge while engaged in programming.

The SWITCH acronym stands for Support with Intention to Create Hope. It is also a reference to the small “switch” device that can convert a handgun into a pocket-sized fully automatic weapon. But “switch” is also a good description of that new way of thinking.

Old thoughts of fast money or reactive retaliation give way to more reasoned decision-making, the product of many conversations with outreach specialists, life coaches and clinical specialists. Participants learn that self-regulation and patience are key foundational pieces to a new way of living.

This is what SWITCH participants Andre and Mylo have discovered. At the Fourth Annual Breakthrough Conference presented by Memphis Allies, each of them spent several minutes on stage having a conversation with Carl Davis, Memphis Allies’ managing director of operations.

The conference theme was “Cultivating Champions for a Safer Memphis.” If Memphis is to become safer — and the statistics and trends are moving in the right direction — then young men such as Andre and Mylo must have the courage to change.

A new view of ‘normal’

Initially, Andre and Mylo resisted Memphis Allies’ efforts to engage with them. Mylo, Davis recalled, was so good at dodging staff that if hide-and-seek was an Olympic sport, “Mylo would win the gold medal.”

Andre, who had a gun charge, was a court referral. But that just meant he was required by law to participate, not that he was committing himself to it.

“I didn’t really want to be in this program,” Andre said. “I didn’t know why you people were bothering me. Dowdy (outreach specialist Antonio Dowdy) just kept coming.”

Mylo, who had rank in a gang, had much the same experience, saying, “I didn’t see nothing wrong with what I was doing for a long time.”

So, the change of mindset did not happen overnight. Rather, it was day after day, and month after month, of Andre and Mylo absorbing more positive reinforcement while negative influences began to fade.

A “switch” was coming, so to say.

Eventually, the young men began to look at what they had taken for granted differently. For instance, they often saw comments on social media stirring up conflict that led to shootings, sometimes homicides; they once considered that normal.

And life can end over nothing.

‘Not even like that anymore’

“I’m gonna keep it real,” Mylo said, adding that changing his thoughts and actions did not come easily. “It was uncomfortable. It was boring. But you want to know something? If [Memphis Allies staff] stay on me to do the right thing, then that means I can help somebody else.

“I used to use the bad things to my advantage,” Mylo continued. “Because people knew me. But now, I can come to them as a changed person, I can say I am not even like that anymore, and they are actually proud.”

That is real progress. Of course, temptation is ever present.

Which is why Davis asked Mylo what keeps him from reverting to past, harmful, patterns.

“That’s a good question,” Mylo said, adding, “I’ve come too far to turn back to my old ways.”