- This month on The SPARK our theme is "Focused on Healing, Teaching, and Freedom."

We'll learn more about a nonprofit empowering and supporting youth to make Memphis a city of healing mentally, physically, and spiritually.

A public charter school dedicated to the belief that college begins in kindergarten, and an organization working statewide to exonerate the innocent in Tennessee.

We'll also share a special moment from our SPARK Awards 2022.

- From our very beginnings in 1954, Lipscomb and Pitts Insurance has been built on the values of customer service, leading with integrity and supporting our community.

We believe in promoting the positives, encouraging engagement, and leading by example to power the good.

Lipscomb and Pitts Insurance is honored to be a presenting sponsor of The SPARK.

- (male announcer) Additional funding for The SPARK is provided by, United Way of the Mid-South, ECOP, The Memphis Zoo, My Town Movers, My Town Roofing, My Town Properties, and by Meritan.

- Have you ever been excited by a new idea?

Inspired by watching someone lead by example?

When we talk about creating change, we start by sharing the stories of everyday heroes who are making a difference in their own way so we can learn and do the same.

I'm Jeremy Park and this is The SPARK.

They're a nonprofit empowering youth to make Memphis a city of healing.

We're here with the founder and CEO of HEAL 901, K Durell Cowan and let's start out, this begins with your journey and your story.

So give us a little bit of history for launching HEAL 901.

- Most definitely.

Jeremy, HEAL 901 comes from me taking my own personal pain and turning it into power.

Roughly around 2009 my uncle was tragically murdered by the hands of Richmond County Sheriff's Deputies in Richmond County, Virginia, in Richmond, Virginia.

And just understanding what the impact of was losing him.

He wasn't just a uncle, he was a father figure for me growing up in a single parent home.

So just understanding how that made me feel and the things that I lacked not having him in my life.

We started doing some work to make sure that others don't fall into the gaps and feel the things and feel the same pain that I felt.

- So you are stepping in and empowering youth.

It's violence prevention, it's mentorship, it's working with athletes.

There's a lot to unpack.

Let's start with working with the athletes.

You have a program for women and men, so talk about those two.

- Most definitely.

We're, pleased to be able to bring Coaching Boys into Men and Athletes as Leaders to various schools, charter schools, all across Shelby County.

It's a pleasure to be able to go out and impact the lives of these young people.

So the reason that we love working with athletes, we do understand that athletes are the leaders of the school, the home, as well as the community.

And if you effectively change the mindset of the athlete in this follower generation in which we live, that you can effectively change where these followers are going.

So we just believe that if we equip the athletes to be true leaders, that it put them in a better position for future growth.

Especially for our high school athletes wen you're talking about the name, image and likeness deal that everyone's talking about.

We understand that organizations are only going to put those stamps on those athletes that are most poised, not just on the field or in the classroom, but when no eyes are on them.

So for us, it's just making sure that these wonderful athletes that we send out for Shelby County are equipped to be able to take advantage of the name, image, likeness opportunity to be able to be a financial contributor to their families back home even to this day.

And the same thing with Coaching Boys into Men, we also do the same with our female athletes.

We didn't forget about the la dies with Athletes as Leaders.

That's a female component to shifting to Coaching Boys into Men.

Shifting Boundaries is an amazing program that my team is doing at a middle school right now and that teaches middle school children the signs of healthy relationships and how to establish healthy boundaries for themselves.

And you know, timing is everything, Jeremy.

So for us, just living this new post-covid life, it's just one of those things where these children have the opportunity of seeing what life is like when everyone gives you six feet of space, right?

That was amazing to be able to go in the grocery store, not have to worry about anybody bumping into you and things of that nature.

So I'm teaching our youth, if you still want that six feet of space, you can get it and not only from your peers, but you can get it from adults too.

And that's how you establish your boundaries and say what your boundaries are and ensure the individual live inside of those boundaries that you set and respect them.

- Talking about adults, you have a program called Safe Bars.

I want you to talk about that and also how this plays a larger role in preventing violence.

- Most definitely.

With Safe Bars what we do is we go into any alcohol-serving establishment, whether that's a nightclub, whether it's a brewery, or whether it's cigar lounge.

If they serve alcoholic beverages there we're willing to go in and train the staff of signs of sexual assault and human trafficking.

We wanna move those individuals from being innocent bystanders to active bystanders and teach them them the active bystander skills.

And we do that in partnership with the Shelby County Crime Victim and Rape Crisis Center.

Understanding that having a partnership with some of these government agencies give us the ability, that extra room and extra st retch because of the manpower and staff that they have, it gives us the ability to expand our work by having them as our partners.

So we're loving the work they're doing over there.

We have a new executive director over there at the Crime Victim and Rape Crisis Center.

We're excited to meet her and bring her into the fold.

You all will learn a lot about her.

She's a wonderful individual.

But like I say, all of this goes back into creating a safer Shelby County for everyone.

- You have different programs for the seasons.

You have Operation Warm Winter during the winter, and then you have Operation Cool Down during the summer.

Talk about those two.

- Most definitely.

Operation Warm Winter and Operation Cool Down are our programs that we use to be able to work and do outreach.

We believe that outreach is important, so therefore, when it comes to Operation Warm Winter, what we do is we hand out space heaters to the homeless, to our seniors who are in need of it.

But the main goal for us is to collect as many Mylar blankets as we can, as many hand warmers and toe warmers and skull caps and socks, and give those items to our homeless population as well into our law enforcement officers and EMT officers who encounter these chronically homeless individuals.

Our goal is to make sure that no one loses their life due to the elements.

So we understand handing them a big blanket to walk or comforter to walk around wi th would be totally redundant.

That would put them, make them a target.

But those Mylar blankets, you can actually fold it up smaller than your card wallet and they can put that in their pocket no matter where they're at.

If they can't get into the shelter, they have the ability to keep themselves warm and brave the elements.

- How can the community help your efforts with HEAL 901?

- The community, we're looking forward to community partners.

We're still looking for organizations to help sponsor some of the work that we're doing, be it major organizations, be it our mom and pop entrepreneurs that are doing the work, and we're looking for support in any way that we can get it.

You can always go to our website, www.heal901, that's heal901.org, and fill out the contact us form.

And I ensure you that a staff member will get back to you promptly within 24 hours.

We would love to have you volunteer.

We would love for you to come and lend a hand or even just see the wonderful work that we're doing.

- Well, K Durell Cowan, thank you for all you and your amazing team do.

Thank you for coming on the show.

- Thank you, Jeremy.

It was a pleasure, man.

I look forward to speaking with you anytime.

[upbeat music] - They're a public charter school dedicated to the belief that college begins in kindergarten.

We're with the Executive Director of Aurora Collegiate Academy, Grant Monda.

And let's start, give us a little bit of history and context for Aurora.

- Thanks, Jeremy.

Aurora, we are in our 12th year of operation, and as you mentioned, we were found on the belief that college begins in kindergarten for our students.

We have about 325 students, about 70% Hispanic, about 30% African-American.

High need about 98% free and reduced lunch.

And we're located at Summer and Mendenhall.

And as we mentioned, we are focused on teaching our kids early and often.

- What does it mean to be a public charter school?

- Great question.

So we are a public school, which means any student can attend, no one's districted or acquired to attend.

So we're a school of choice.

The same way that tax dollars flow to a traditional public school, those tax dollars flow to Aurora through our students.

No entrance exams, no fees.

You only have to live in Shelby Co unty and you can attend.

Some differences are we are able to kind of develop our own curriculums, determine our own budgeting.

We also have our own school board, which is made up of volunteers that represent various industries and specialties in the community.

I often say the X is on the wall for where we have to get, but we have a lot of autonomy in the route that we take.

- Talk about school culture because that's something obviously that really creates the formula for success with your team and with the students.

And so talk about the school culture.

- Yeah, so we have a full-time, we call it a dean of students and her full and sole responsibility is supporting and developing a high quality school structure and school culture.

And so we do a lot of different th ings to bring that culture into the building.

So for example, right now we're celebrating Black History Month.

We had an entire week of different dress up days to represent various things within the celebration.

And then in a couple days we'll actually have an entire school celebration where each grade is gonna represent and do a different project and share it with their peers.

We want to ensure that our students love coming to school on a daily basis here at Aurora.

- When you talk about building a solid foundation for success, carry that forward from the culture into the classroom and some of the unique and special things that you and your team do to really help build that solid foundation for success.

- Yeah, we're really lucky that we're able to focus on individualized learning and support.

We don't have to make policies that represent a hundred thousand kids or even a thousand kids.

So when we're putting together strategies or ideas, we're able to say like, what does this look like for a third grader, a fifth grader, and a kindergartner?

And so we're able to provide really individualized learning and small group supports to our scholars.

Another big thing that we do that's a little bit different is we believe that while our students are learning, we also need to be learning on a daily basis.

So we have academic coaches, their full responsibility is to provide coaching around instruction and curriculum for our teachers.

So all of our teachers receive at least one hour of coaching each week with the idea that if we're gonna ask our students to improve, then we're gonna improve at the same time and creates this environment where we're all learning together.

- Talk about your team because you mentioned obviously the specialization on one side.

Talk about your team overall.

- So my role as executive director is to really support both the academics and the operations.

We operate like any small business or small nonprofit where we do a lot of things in-house.

So we have a principal and she is really focused on the academics and the culture.

And then we have a director of operations who oversees kind of all the business pieces that go into running any kind of typical organization.

We're a small organization, but I like to think that we're small but mighty.

- Talk about how this builds empowerment, character, strength, freedom of opportunities for the youth as they grow up and go into middle school, high school, college, and ultimately life.

- Yeah, we talk about really laying the foundation.

Sometimes we'll do #firmfoundation for our students and our unofficial mascot is the acorn And really like our students come as those acorns that have all the potential.

And our job as the school is to nurture them and water them and prepare them with the idea that all of our students have that potential.

We just need to help develop it.

And a tree isn't, you know, doesn't grow over one year.

It takes a long time.

And so we know that we're pl anting that seed or that acorn and by the time they leave fifth grade they may not be fully developed, full strong trees, but they have the roots and the systems that they need to be successful middle school, high school, and then college.

- How can the community help your efforts?

- Well, there's a lot of different ways.

One, if you're a parent and you're listening and you're saying, wow, Aurora is the place I wanna send my student.

On our website at auroracollegiate.org, there's a spot that says enroll.

We have limited spots, but I encourage you to apply right around now where we have some opportunities.

If you are a teacher and you're listening saying, wow, I wanna work at Aurora, they value their teachers, they build a sustainable work environment, that's where I want to be.

Also on our website, it says, join our team.

You're welcome to check out our different employment opportunity hiring kind of on a rolling basis.

And then if you're just listening and saying, I recognize that a huge investment that I can make is supporting our students in education, you kind of have two routes.

Also on our website, auroracollegiate.org, you can go to click contact and you can fill out a little form that says like, I wanna volunteer.

And that could volunteer from like, you know, Monday, Wednesday, Friday tutoring, to coming to a career fair or helping when we're doing a service project.

Also, if you're tight on time but wanna still support financially, there's a donate now page.

The work that we're doing, it's not inexpensive.

It takes a lot of resources.

And so as I mentioned, like a great investment you can make in the city of Memphis is to support the work that we're doing.

And whether that's a one time or an ongoing, we are just appreciative and you know that we'll be good stewards of any resources that we receive.

- Well Grant, definitely appreciate and love everything you and your amazing team are doing.

So thank you for all you do, and thank you for coming on the show.

- Thanks Jeremy, I appreciate it.

[upbeat music] - The SPARK Awards annually recognize and celebrate individuals and organizations that have made outstanding contributions to the community.

The 2022 Nonprofit Award for organizations with a budget greater than $5 million went to Church Health.

[soft music] - Yeah, so I'm Scott Morris and Church Health has hard to believe, but been around for 35 years.

Our mission has not changed in that entire time.

Thirty-five years ago Church Health opened in a little small house in the co rner of Peabody and Bellevue, and we provide healthcare for the people who work to make our lives comfortable.

They cook our food, take care of our children, wash our dishes, cut our grass, one day dig our graves, and when they get sick, their options are very few.

Church Health is now the anchor tenant at Crosstown.

We have 150,000 square feet there.

It houses virtually everything we do.

We have 54 exam rooms.

We run a family medicine residency and partnership with Baptist Hospital.

We have literally the country's largest free-standing dental clinic.

We have an eye clinic, we offer behavioral help.

We have an incredible nutrition center.

Church Health currently cares for almost 80,000 people in Memphis.

We're the largest faith-based, privately funded health centers in America.

But we're able to do this because it's truly a reflection of all that's good in Memphis.

We have over 1,000 physicians who volunteer with us.

The hospitals are all engaged, we're trying to figure out a way to take care of our neighbors.

It's truly a wonder to behold.

Our mission is to engage the faith community in its broadest sense.

Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, we are all the same in terms of believing that God expects us to care for our bodies as well as our spirits, and to care for poor people when they have nowhere else to turn.

And that's exactly what we do.

Sadly, there's still a lot more for us to do and we're gonna do it for a long time to come.

Thirty-five years ago, I never anticipated that we would just be here in Memphis.

The idea was always to create a model that was reproducible around the country.

And that has happened.

There are almost 90 clinics around the United States that have modeled themselves after Church Health.

And it's a wonder to behold in many ways, but it's also a reflection of what's possible in God's imagination.

That the work we do is driven by the fact that we feel that God has called us all to do this and we roll up our sleeves, we work together, and it makes us all smile to just see what's happening.

[soft music] - They're an organization working statewide to exonerate the innocent in Tennessee.

We're here with the Executive Director and Lead Counsel with the Tennessee Innocence Project, Jessica Van Dyke.

And let's start, give us a little bit of history for the Tennessee Innocence Project.

- Hey Jeremy, thank you for having us.

The Tennessee Innocence Project is an organization, we are a nonprofit law firm dedicated to making sure that people who are innocent of crimes they did not commit don't end up or remain behind bars.

So we work with folks who are claiming that they have been convicted of crimes, but they're actually innocent.

- Talk about how it works in terms of finding those individuals, vetting you know, the truth and figuring out if this is one that you can work on.

How does it work?

- Well, there's a lot of different factors that we have to consider.

The first is, is this individual claiming that they're actually innocent?

Because we do get letters from people who say, my sentence is too long, or I accidentally committed this crime and it was an accident.

That's not what we're talking about here.

We're talking about people who were convicted of crimes they were not involved with in any way.

And estimates are, you know, approximately 3%.

You know, some estimates are 1%, some are 6%, but you know, we can think about 3% of people be ing wrongfully convicted of crimes they didn't commit.

We identify cases usually through an application process.

- How does technology and some of the advancements, how does that play into being able to go back and look at cases in a new light?

- Like everything else that we see in the world, we're constantly improving, right?

We're constantly getting better.

And the same is true for the law to some extent.

And that could be components like DNA testing.

We could test fingerprints that maybe we couldn't put into a database because the database didn't exist until 1999.

So there are many different types of technological improvements that we might be able to do or use to our client's advantage.

But a lot of times it's good old fashioned investigation, good old fashioned detective work, so to speak.

So once we have an application sent to us, we conduct an investigation, we're gonna look into all of the facts of the case, speak with the prior attorneys potentially, and we're gonna just see does this case have some of the red flags or the hallmarks of wrongful convictions.

- Give us a story of success.

So talk about a recent success story.

- So in 2022, we were very fortunate to have several successes.

One, our most recent exoneree was a fellow named Claude Garrett.

Claude spent 30 years in prison for a crime he did not commit.

He was convicted of a murder that was based on an arson.

And through improved science and our understanding of how fires start and fire science, we were able to show that the testimony that was presented at his trial was not scientifically accurate.

And as a result, he received a new trial and was ultimately released from prison in May of 2022.

- Talk about what that's like for an individual who spends 30 years behind bars for a crime he didn't commit and then coming out free.

That's overwhelming, but talk about what that's like, what you get to kind of see that sense of purpose on your end, but ultimately what it means to impact that man's life, but also his families.

- Absolutely.

Not only is the client impacted, but their family, you know, it's something that maybe they never imagined because their, you know, Claude was serving a life sentence.

We had other clients who have spent 27 years in prison.

I mean, just huge chunks of someone's life that are lost because they are behind bars for something that they simply didn't do.

You know, I think with most of our clients, they are consistently fighting for their freedom and Claude was an example of that.

He fought his conviction literally for 30 years and it was actually a collaborative process with the District Attorney's Office that allowed us to bring that case back forward, to do an investigation, to seek the truth and ultimately to get his case reversed and get him back in court.

- Carry that into why your work matters at a larger level in terms of ensuring justice for all is for all.

So why does this work matter so much for the community at large?

- We should all be concerned that we make sure constitutional rights are upheld, that we follow the best practices, the best procedures.

If we are not arresting and convicting the person that actually committed the crime, the victim is not well served.

We wanna make sure that we are getting the person who actually committed the crime and they're serving the time.

We not only wanna get people out of prison, but at the Tennessee Innocence Project, one of our goals is to educate others and identify patterns that would allow us to prevent wrongful convictions from happening in the first place.

Many of our clients, I would say almost all of our clients, lack any financial resources to afford counsel.

Many of them have been in prison for 20, 30 years.

So all of the services we provide are at no charge.

And you know, you're talking about years of legal representation in many of these cases, and it's not just attorneys doing the work.

We call in expert witnesses.

We may have doctors, scientists, labs that do different work.

So we have got lots of different people investigating and opining about the cases that we work on.

- Give us a couple of ways that we can help your efforts and then obviously where we can go to make sure that we are in the loop and are connected in.

- There are a couple really quick, easy ways that people can connect with the Tennessee Innocence Project.

One of those is through our newsletter.

You know, we don't send out a ton, you know, you're not gonna get something from us every day, but we love to let people know about the cases we're working on, maybe the policy changes or initiatives that are coming up, as well as events where they can learn from individuals who've been wrongfully convicted.

And all of that you can sign up for on our website at tninnocence.org, so sign up for our newsletter.

That's a really easy way.

If you feel particularly moved by what we're doing we are a nonprofit law firm and we work cases with people power.

So financial contributions are always appreciated.

And then follow us on all the social media avenues.

You know, we've got Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, follow us and share that with other people.

Educating and making sure that we don't wrongfully convict people is a huge part of our mission, and we can do that with the help of the public.

- Well Jessica, thank you for all you and your amazing team do.

Thank you for coming on the show.

- Thank you.

[soft music] - With the theme "Focused on Healing, Teaching and Freedom", we covered a wide range of organizations in this month's episode.

As we saw HEAL 901 is focused on violence prevention, striving to empower and support youth with safe environments to build their skills and confidence, receive mental health services and scholarships, and develop healthy relationships.

The priority is to make Memphis a city of healing, mentally, physically, and spiritually.

Aurora Collegiate Academy is educating students in kindergarten through fifth grade and building a strong foundation of knowledge, skills, and character that will put our children on the path for success in middle school, high school, college, and life.

Then the Tennessee Innocence Project is investigating and litigating claims of actual innocence to exonerate the innocent across the state and ensure that justice for all means for all.

One of the common threads throughout each the interviews and organizations is care, caring for others and our community.

When we care, we become aware and we can then take action to help others and become a spark in our community.

So thank you for caring and watching The SPARK.

To learn more about each of the guests, to watch past episodes and to share your stories of others leading by example, visit wkno.org and click on the link for The SPARK.

We look forward to seeing you next month, and we hope you'll continue joining with us to create a spark for the Mid-South.

- From our very beginnings in 1954, Lipscomb and Pitts Insurance has been built on the values of customer service, leading with integrity and supporting our community.

We believe in promoting the positives, encouraging engagement, and leading by example to power the good.

Lipscomb and Pitts Insurance is honored to be a presenting sponsor of The SPARK.

[upbeat music] [acoustic guitar chords]