K. Durrell Cowan believes in the African proverb: if children don’t feel the love of their village, they will burn it down to feel the warmth. And so he founded his Memphis nonprofit to help kids cope.

By Helina Selemon for The Trace and Mahlia Posey for The Trace

This story was originally published by The Trace, a nonprofit newsroom covering gun violence in America. Sign up for its newsletters here.

When K. Durrell Cowan started Heal 901, a violence prevention nonprofit founded in 2018 that works with young residents in Memphis, Tennessee, he knew that his small team was up against longstanding social and economic issues that help maintain the violence that young people experience in his city.

“I understand the issues. I understand the adversities. I understand the systemic oppression, the racism. … I can’t erase that,” says Cowan, founder of Heal 901, a CVI program in Memphis, Tennessee. “But can I help you navigate it until this country does better?”

Cowan said he’s striving for a better, safer quality of life for the kids in his community, to ensure they don’t inherit a city and country that remains as violent as he’s found it.

Cowan spoke to The Trace for our Violence Interrupted series, a project that explores the realities of community-based violence prevention and intervention work.

These transcripts have been lightly edited for length and clarity.

I have a 7-year-old son, a 6-year-old daughter, a 5-year-old daughter, and a 1-year-old daughter. It’s not about me. But if my children have to face the same struggles that I face in the same city, my life was not worth living.

And that’s what I stand on every day. And I tell my staff members, whether you got children, grandchildren: If they face the same struggles that you face, or anything similar, what did you do with your life?

I’m not here to condemn nobody. I understand the issues. I understand the adversities. I understand the systemic oppression, the racism. I understand everything you’ve been through. I can’t erase that, but can I help you navigate it until this country does better? Can I just help you navigate?

There’s an African proverb that says that if children do not feel the love of their village, they will burn it down to feel the warmth. America is burning.

Because when you look at Hitler, he said putting people in a confined area with a limited amount of resources, they’ll kill each other daily for survival.

That’s what I see happening in inner cities all across America. We’re seeing Black and brown people living in a confined area with a limited amount of resources, and they’re fighting daily for survival. Then we wonder why there’s a violence problem.

Is violence a byproduct of poverty? Well, when I read the book, it told me that this is the way that people respond. It says that poor people respond with their hands and physicality because that’s all that they have.

Middle-class individuals, they gonna fight with words. It’s called “verbal sparring,” because they’re educated. They know how to use their intellects to be able to get them out of situations.

Then there’s the wealthy individuals who are just going to use their money to do what they have to do, which is sue. So, if you want to change my community, we’ve got to change some things.