MEMPHIS, Tenn. — For the young men of Dr. Jeffery Futrell’s Young Man University (YMU), the lessons they learn are like a game of chess.
“You have all these different moves and every move you take in life affects you, and you taking this one step can affect you for the rest of your life, for the rest of the game," 18-year-old Jasper Jarrett said.
Memphis officials said they're on the case to give opportunities to thousands of young people in the city. But Dr. Futrell, on his own, is working to bolster the effort.
Futrell, a former gang member, uses his past experiences to keep young men from making the mistakes he did. Futrell focuses on entrepreneurship.
“We’re not a program, we’re a system, so we look to stay sustainable, and the part with our sons is to empower them with their vision and take their vision and run with it," Futrell said. "I stress entrepreneurship.”
The entrepreneurship is displayed in two phases: small group homeschooling and academic tutoring weekly and by teaching youth about financial literacy, how to trade stocks and developing a business plan. It has one theme: every move or decision a young person makes can either bring them an advantage or disadvantage.
“It makes me feel like I got a purpose and [I'm] able to look forward to get up and doing something," 21-year-old Justin Kinard said. “Instead of getting up and doing the regular, which would be probably going out with my friends riding around not doing nothing for real, I’m doing some business, doing good stuff.”
The spike in juvenile crime is among the biggest concerns in the city's crime crisis. Some Memphians say keeping our youth occupied is a topic we talk around but don't actually do anything about.
Since taking office in January, Mayor Paul Young has made engaging Memphis youth a priority, asking for millions of dollars for youth activities and services in his fiscal year 2025 budget. The mayor and youth advocated saying keeping kids busy helps them avoid bad situations.
“There's nothing to do here, really. You know what I mean?" Memphis youth Jaicob Childres said. "Teens have nothing to do, so that's why it's so easy to get in trouble. You got nothing to do, you’re outside all day...”
Mayor Young-appointed Director of Youth Services Brian Harris said they’re revamping and refocusing the division’s workflow and programming.
"The biggest focus for Mayor Young is to have a presence in the 'know' of the communities," Harris said.
The biggest change moving into the summer is the expansion of the Memphis Ambassadors Program (MAP), a year-round program that focuses on things like community service and entrepreneurship.
“Young people were not actually working, they were part of an institute that had been around a few years," Harris said. "So, what we’re going to do differently from a restructuring standpoint is roll them over to the MAP (Memphis Ambassadors Program) side, which is a five to seven-month program, and have more summer camps that are geared to taking young people out to learn leadership, to learn different life skills."
Harris said there are 240,000 young people in the city of Memphis between the ages of 8 and 18, and the Office of Youth Services alone can’t serve all of them without some help.
"If we have more of our faith-based community…we’ll see a different result and outcome, and some of the complaints we have will become success stories," he said.
Futrell's YMU is year-round and has a homeschool component. For more information, you can contact Young Man University directly.