SWITCH Posts

Memphis Allies’ mission to reduce gun violence is carried out daily by going into the city’s neighborhoods. Sometimes when there is trouble, and other times to simply meet people where they are: to share some food and a conversation, or a laugh and provide a bouncy house and a water slide for the neighborhood kids on a hot summer day.

This is ‘heart work,’ says Memphis Allies SWITCH supervisor

His name is Earve Mathis, but around Memphis Allies’ South Memphis office, he is better known as “Mr. E.”

A life coach supervisor in the adult SWITCH program, Mr. E knows well the cost of making bad decisions.

Step-by-step, SWITCH participant finding the light For decades, Gary was in hiding. He just didn’t know it. “Growing up, I created the mask,” he said. “Be the tough guy to exist in society.”

‘These guys have nothing to lose’ is why Memphis Allies’ Tito Porter does what he does A gun, Tito Porter says, is just a means to an end. In fact, at age 19, it enabled Porter to have his own place. “My first apartment on my own was a jail cell,” he said. Porter stayed more than four years. By the time he got out, he had learned money was worthless compared to freedom.