MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Even as recent as Monday night, the violence in the Bluff City are more examples of what Memphians continue to deal with, shootings becoming all too common for some, leaving families changed forever.
The legacy of a life lost to gun violence is being honored as one Memphian starts a nonprofit to combat crime.
“At that moment…my life and world changed,” Vickie Johnson recalled to ABC24.
While it may be two years later, to Vickie Johnson, the loss of her son Chadric feels like it was only yesterday.
“He was one of those guys that just welcomed everyone without judgment,” said Johnson.
Chadric was a father, athlete and an entrepreneur according to Johnson, and this legacy is something she plans to keep going strong. At the start of 2024, Johnson launched the Chadric D. Henderson Foundation, with a goal to give back to Chadric's favorite fields. Among the eventual goals including basketball training for kids, the organization has already created a scholarship for children who have been affected by gun violence, along with additional projects now getting off the ground.
“We plan to donate barber’s kits to students attending barber school,” said Johnson.
There are more than 1.8 million nonprofits in the US, and the foundation now joins 6,587 others aiming to treat issues facing the city of Memphis according to the IRS, but the question remains, are they working? Turns out, there is data to back it up.
A 2017 study looked into the murder rates across major US cities starting in the 1990s when they were high. Over the course of two decades, there started to be a drop off, part of which was determined to be because of neighborhood organizations.
“Neighborhoods felt like they had to organize from within and do something about it," said Gerard Torrats-Espinosa, Columbia assistant professor of sociology.
According to the study of 264 cities, specific reductions include a 9% reduction in murder rates, 6% reduction in violent crime rates and a 4% reduction in property crime rates.
Torrats-Espinosa was one of the minds behind the study and told ABC24 part of what helped make the nonprofits so effective was having a special insight into the specific neighborhoods they serve.
“Having this flexibility to adapt to the needs of the community in a way that doesn’t come dictated by Washington or city hall,” said Torrats-Espinosa.
To get involved with the Chadric D. Henderson Foundation you can click THIS LINK HERE.
“We’re doing this to encourage our young people that there are people that care about them," Johnson said. "…We have to keep pushing on. We have to keep hope alive.”