New 'Resiliency Hubs' in North Memphis aim to provide comprehensive services for residents

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC) – A new strategic public safety plan unveiled Friday will focus on the North Memphis community.

Shelby County Commissioner Charlie Caswell announced that the county will work hand-in-hand with select nonprofits they call “Resiliency Hubs” that offer comprehensive services to its residents.

The primary hubs include the new ones Pure Academy in North Memphis, The place of residence and the Embassy of Faith Church.

These hubs will also collaborate with other community organizations in the unincorporated areas of Raleigh, Nutbush, Frayser and Shelby County.

One of those nonprofits is “The Golden Institute,” which works with youth in the community, like 20-year-olds Damion Brown and Jerry Lee.

Damion Brown, 20-year-old landscaper at The Golden Institute(Action News 5)

The two have come a long way since they first encountered the Golden Institute in Raleigh as high school students.

“All I knew was I was home and playing the game,” Lee said.

The nonprofit organization pays children to learn a trade. It is a three-part program that starts with awareness, apprenticeship and finally entrepreneurship.

Lee and Brown now have their own landscaping business. They thank the program for giving them a new skill.

“It started off easy: picking up leaves, cleaning up and then you started leveling up,” Brown said.

The nonprofit’s founder, Charlie Golden, also offers discounted schools for hairdressing, natural hair and nails.

His efforts received some more support on Friday morning.

Commissioner Caswell announced an initial provincial investment of $600,000 to help fund nine different organizations in the community.

“I think it’s very important because if you look at it from a provincial perspective, we were given a budget of $1.6 billion,” Caswell said. “We often do things with a cookie cutter. We look at things across the board, but we don’t dig into the root cause of the communities that have greater needs.”

Show new data violent crimes and property crimes are decreasing.

On Friday, community leaders reiterated the need for more work on the ground to keep the trend going.

Pastor Leon Jones, operator of the nonprofit "Place of residence" — Pastor Leon Jones, operator of the non-profit organization “Dwelling Place”(Action news 5)

“What I’m finding is that most of these kids don’t want to be bad. They don’t want to get into trouble, but they don’t have options,” says The Dwelling Place founder Leon Jones, another designated Resiliency Hub.

Jones and his wife host a men’s basketball league every Friday evening.

“My wife and I did this alone. We pay for everything. We have no staff and we have been there every Friday night. It helps me hire success coaches and bench coaches to sit on the bench and guide them,” Jones said.

Commissioner Caswell says this new effort will be data-driven and will track its progress through the School Seed group.

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