SWITCH Youth helping Quincy to realize his potential

Memphis Allies’ SWITCH Youth program is not just trying to reach teenagers who might be prone to finding trouble. Rather, the goal is to reach those most at risk for involvement in gun violence.

“Quincy,” age 17, met that criterion.

“He was very high risk,” said Addie Wright, a SWITCH Youth regional supervisor. “He had multiple gun charges.”

Yet when SWITCH Youth Clinical Specialist Cedric Jackson first met Quincy, he saw beyond the charges and beyond his initial reluctance to trust these new people in his life who were trying to help.

“I saw the potential in him from day one,” Jackson said.

Quincy was accepted into SWITCH Youth programming last March. Largely modeled after Memphis Allies’ SWITCH program for adults, SWITCH Youth engagement usually lasts at least 12 months. Participants have access to an outreach specialist, a life coach, a case manager and a clinical specialist—in this instance, that was Jackson.

“He’s very intelligent, very humble,” Jackson said of Quincy. “He just needed that support structure that we (Memphis Allies) provide. I see that all the time with these kids. They’re begging for that support structure.”

Without it, Quincy emulated the examples in his world: family members and peers running in the streets, making fast money, and more than willing to make themselves armed and dangerous.

Wright says Quincy was not a gang member, but those family members and friends who were affiliated held influence with him. His parents are no longer together, but his father was present in his life.

“We don’t see a lot of kids where the father is involved,” Wright said.

Still, Quincy put himself into bad situations. He dropped out of high school. He did not have a job. And he wanted the things his peers had gone out and taken for themselves.

“The driving force for his delinquent behavior was money… having nice things, having nice clothes,” Jackson said, noting that Quincy’s neighborhood is one of the most violent in the city. “He also has a new child and wanted to provide.”

Through SWITCH Youth, Quincy enrolled in GED classes at HopeWorks, a faith-based nonprofit that uses education to help Memphians find sustainable work and escape poverty.

Jackson says Quincy did well with the GED classes and graduated from that program in November; Jackson and Wright attended the ceremony.

Still, along the journey, “he had a couple of setbacks,” Jackson said, noting that after coming off probation for a gun charge, Quincy accepted a ride in a stolen car and picked up an added charge.

The worst part was that Quincy knew the driver did not own the car and did not even have a driver’s license.

“We talked a lot about his decision-making, how he could have prevented that situation,” said Jackson, who believes the incident marked a turning point for Quincy. Just over a year ago, a good friend of Quincy’s was shot and killed. He was starting to see how life can pivot—or even end—in a second.

“He’s talked about being afraid to die,” Jackson said. “And he wants to take care of his son and take care of his own mom.”

His current plan: earn certification in a trade, probably welding, so he can have a job that pays above minimum wage.

“He wants different for his life… he wants more,” Jackson said of the mindset change he has seen in Quincy. “There are a lot of ‘Quincys’ out there.”

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