From formerly incarcerated to CEOs, a diverse group is working on a plan to ease inequities in Memphis – Commercial Appeal

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A Memphis-based youth development organization has secured a multimillion-dollar investment and is looking to use it to jump-start a new program in Shelby County.

Seeding Success, a 10-year-old nonprofit thatsecured $8.5 million in funding from its partners, is in the midst of an 18-month, virtual planning process. The process, according to Mark Sturgis, the organization's CEO, consists of community members and partners voicing their lived experiences in Memphis.

"We were really intentional about bringing young people, students, formerly incarcerated individuals, people who live in some of our communities that are experiencing poverty, folks from the business community, and CEO levelfolks together.There are also governmental partners. So people from the county, cityand in the school systems all come to the table to talk about these issues," Sturgis said.

Mark Sturgis from Seeding Success talks about the improvement in test numbers for kids attending early childhood programs during a talks at the Shelby County Pre-K Summit Wednesday morning at the Kroc Center.(Photo: Jim Weber/The Commercial Appeal)

The issues being discussed revolve around how to make education and economic development, among other things, equitable in Memphis.The group's end goal is to craft a wide-reaching program with strategies that will help to bridge socio-economicgaps throughout Shelby County's numerous neighborhoods.

The program willalso set a foundation for Seeding Success to receive more funding in the future. Sturgis said the organization has an "internal goal of [around] $200 million to be invested in the strategies" that Seeding Success is currently working to establish.

The year and a half-long planning process does not reduce the sense of urgency that Sturgis feels. As important as being certain about the route that the group takes is for him, the racial inequalities that have been pushed to the forefront over the past year have opened up a window that is important for the success of the program.

"There's a real urgency to the now. This is a moment, a unique moment, where we've got a critical focus on racial equity in this country," he said.

That inequity was best emphasized and translated to Memphians, according to Sturgis, by researchfrom Dr.Raj Chetty, an economist who teaches at Harvard University. Chetty's current research focuses on economic mobility among disadvantaged Americans. His organization, Opportunity Insights, provides a localized map of economic mobility and places Memphis as a low mobility area. This means that there is under a 5 percent chance thatthose born into the lowest fifth of the income bracket will ever rise to the upper fifth.

This data is, in part, what led Blue Meridian Partners to joinSeeding Success and be among the many local, statewide and national donors.

"I came to know a long time ago, even from my own experience, thatgeography is destiny," said Tomeka Hart Wigginton, a managing director at Blue Meridian and native Memphian. "If we're really going to have change in this community...it has to be driven by the people who are the voices of the community."

The long-term effects of the program that Seeding Success is working to build may not be felt immediately, but Sturgis believes that the model they use will provide innovative techniques for investing in disenfranchised communities in Shelby County going forward.

"We will be looking to really prioritize those communities that have been traditionally divested in, or faced inequality and poverty because of the history of segregation.

"This feels like a moment to capture andto really look beyond what Memphis can be.This is a powerful and beautiful place if we really invest in the people here. And I think that's where this process really brings a new lens toother planning work that has happened in the community."

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Bringing people and organizationstogether, according to Sturgis, is what makes Seeding Success different from a traditional nonprofit. The organization acts as a sort of glue between its partners, working to create intersectionality between nonprofits, the private sector and governmental bodies.

"We are a support organization," he said. "We don't do the work itself, but we bring the partners together andwe use data to help them make informed decisions.We try to work collaboratively around the solutions. And we try to listen to the voices of the community as well, so weactually meet the needs of the community versusjust looking at national data or evidence."

Once Seeding Success found community members and partners for their planning committee, it was time for the individuals to get to work. Over thelast few months the design board beganmeeting virtually to narrow down what aspects of inequality would best be helped with the funding.

During the process, the group honed in on six categories that they call buckets. They are planning to address education and youth development, health and wellbeing, economic development, justice and safety, community development, and culture. These buckets contain several "sub-buckets" and the group has found that previous attempts to invest in underdeveloped communities have hadbuckets that are "too large to attack at one time."

This is an issue that the group has also run into and is working to address, according to Teresena Medlock, a member of the design committee for Seeding Success. She is also the director of special education at the Memphis Lift Parent Institute where she helps parents and students navigate the education field. As a member of the Memphis Lift organization, Medlock believes that she brings expertise in community outreach to the Seeding Success committee.

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Even with her own expertise, she said the conversations that the committee have had were challenging. She describes the experience as "re-molding" for not only the way she views issues like poverty and racism but also for how she views some of her own experiences.

"We were able to voice opinions in a way in which I've never seenopinions be voiced," she said. "It's so empowering to see how we can be so passionate and be so understanding at the same time.It was a respectful challenge. We were able to educate one another about why we felt the way that we felt and then we were able to open the minds of everyone."

Oftentimes overlooked, the younger generation of Memphis hastwo seats at the table during the planning phase. Zahra Chowdhury occupies one of those seats. She has been a member Bridge Builders, a group that empowers youth to be leaders in their communities, for over three years and jumped on the opportunity to have her voice heard.

"A lot of important decisions that are made about our city that directly impact youth neverget the youth's opinion," said the 17-year-old Memphian. "So it means a lot to me that youth are in a place where decisions are being made, and that their opinions are being taken into account.

"I think that we don't give the youth enough credit. We're doing alot of great things in the city.We're the future, butI think we're the present too."

As a change fellow with Bridge Builders, the highest level of engagement the organization offers, she had experienced how impactful voices from her generation can be. Seeding Success offered Chowdhury a new outlook on what a nonprofit can be, calling the group's planning committee "intersectional, but alsointergenerational."

Although still in the planning phase, Seeding Success set aside $1 million of its investments for "immediate pandemic relief." In line with the way the organization works, the CEO saidthat they immediately partnered with the Community Foundation which has an existing pandemic relief fund. The Community Foundation then used that money to fund other organizations that are working to address the critical needs of individuals and small businesses in Memphis communities.

There is, however, some money remaining in that fund. Sturgis said that Seeding Success is researching early investment strategies for that money.

"We want this to feel different. Sowe'll be making investments as we go and identifying resources that can get deployed and leveraged into communities to meet their needs now," Sturgis said."Experience really equals trustand I think if we're going to build a trusted process, then folks need to experience some change at the levels we can accommodate."

Those wanting tolearn more or sign up to receive updates about Seeding Success' initiative, can visit http://www.seeding-success.org.

Lucas Finton is a news intern at the Commercial Appeal. He can be reached at lucas.finton@commercialappeal.com or on Twitter @LucasFinton.

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From formerly incarcerated to CEOs, a diverse group is working on a plan to ease inequities in Memphis - Commercial Appeal