I was born on April 10, 1976, at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta. That makes me a proud Grady Baby.
Back then, being a Grady Baby often carried two assumptions. You were Black, and you were poor.
That was certainly part of my story.
My parents were young. We did not have much financial capital or social capital. But what we did have was each other. I was blessed to grow up in a two parent household that believed in hard work, faith, and doing the best with what we had.
I am a product of Atlanta Public Schools. I am a product of Atlanta Parks and Recreation. I am a product of coaches, mentors, teachers, and neighbors who invested in me.
Today, after building my career and raising my own family, my wife, Kelli, and I have moved back to the Bankhead community that raised me.
I often say, “I was born here. I was raised here. Now I’m back to raise it.”
The community is changing.
Like many urban neighborhoods across America, Bankhead is experiencing gentrification. Gentrification is the process of investing in and redeveloping neighborhoods to make them more attractive to middle and higher income residents. While that often brings new housing, businesses, and infrastructure, it can also increase housing costs and unintentionally displace longtime residents if growth is not accompanied by equity and opportunity.
Beautiful buildings alone do not create healthy communities.
Healthy communities are built around healthy people.
One of the sounds every thriving neighborhood should hear is the joyful screaming of children playing.
When I was growing up in Bankhead, Center Hill Park was the closest park to my home. I do not remember year round youth programming there. If I wanted to play organized baseball, I had to travel across town to John A. White Park in southwest Atlanta through the Cascade Youth Organization.
That decision changed my life.
Cascade Youth Organization has helped develop remarkable leaders, including Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, along with countless educators, business leaders, coaches, fathers, mothers, and citizens. I am grateful to be one of them.
Today, living back in Grove Park, I hear something different.
I hear police sirens.
I hear fire trucks.
I hear ambulances.
Every day.
For adults, those sounds become background noise. For children, they can become a soundtrack that quietly produces stress, fear, and anxiety. A neighborhood filled with sirens reminds young people that emergencies are common.
But children were never designed to grow up listening only to sirens.
They were designed to laugh.
To compete.
To learn.
To dream.
To scream with joy.
That is why parks matter.
That is why year round programming matters.
That is why caring adults matter.
Every child deserves a safe place where their loudest sound is celebration instead of survival.
Since 2010, LEAD Center For Youth has partnered with Atlanta Public Schools to advance equity and well being through sports based youth development. We have seen firsthand what happens when young people are surrounded by coaches, mentors, structure, and opportunity.
Our mission is simple:
To advance equity and well being through sports based youth development.
Our vision is bold:
To develop equity centered ambassadors who lead their city of Atlanta to lead the world.
As Kelli and I continue this journey, we are working on initiatives that will deepen our presence in the very community that shaped me. We are not quite ready to share everything yet, but our commitment is clear.
We believe every child deserves access to places where they can safely play, grow, and belong.
A healthy community is not measured only by the quality of its buildings.
It is measured by the quality of its children.
My prayer is that one day, when people drive through Bankhead, they will hear fewer sirens and more laughter.
Fewer emergencies and more baseball games.
Fewer sounds of crisis and more screams of children discovering who they were created to become.
Because that is the sound of a community that is truly alive.