- This month on The Spark, our theme is "Finding Your Voice, Changing Our Community".

We'll learn about a nonprofit focused on recruiting, developing, and catalyzing leaders to bring positive change to Memphis, an organization helping girls become strong, smart, and bold leaders, and a nonprofit giving people a voice through storytelling that builds empathy, healing, and joy.

We'll also share a special moment from our Spark Awards 2025.

- From Higginbotham's founding in 1948, our insurance agency 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.

Higginbotham Insurance and Financial Services is honored to be the 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, and by the Medical Education and Research Institute.

- 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 focused on recruiting, developing, and catalyzing leaders to make a positive difference here in Memphis.

We're here with our good friend.

He's the founder and CEO of City Leadership, John Carroll.

And at this point, over 16 years of doing the hard work and the heart work.

Give us a little background for City Leadership.

- Hey, man.

Thanks for having me.

So glad to be here.

Yeah, I moved here, golly, 22 years ago now.

It's gone by so fast.

And honestly, it's hard to imagine living anywhere else.

But moved here to get involved in for-profit work, and, man, found an opportunity to help out in the nonprofit space.

And City Leadership really just began just kind of thinking, how do we help the good guys do more good?

And, you know, I think my friends and family like to say is that I let this hobby get out of control.

And so yeah, 16 years of serving the city and really trying to catalyze, you know, what we look at sometimes is there are people serving so many important issues in our community, and we kind of come along and figure out how could we get these serving things to work together to actually solve some portion of the problem?

And it's been a fun ride.

- Let's start with Choose 901.

So give us a little bit of a walkthrough between Choose 901, Teach 901, Serve 901, Give 901.

Walk us through some of these amazing programs.

- Choose 901 all began because City Leadership was helping nonprofits recruit college graduates to their program, to teach, to be in medicine, to serve, social workers, you know, Youth Villages, Memphis Teacher Residency, Teachers for America, Service Over Self, all these places needed college graduates.

And so Choose 901 started as that campaign to convince those college students who were looking for that for their next season of life to move to Memphis and come invest a season here.

And so that's why our whole world is invest and enjoy if you look at that deal.

So come invest a season of your life and then enjoy this place while you do it.

And so that all began and that was going well, and we got asked to do that same thing but for teachers.

And so that created the Teach 901 campaign.

Over 4,000 teachers have come through that marketing campaign here in our community.

Over the last 13 years, it's been an incredible joy.

We work really hard on retaining teachers.

Teachers are heroes.

And so everywhere you can celebrate a teacher, you should.

Serve 901's our big campaign to convince college students alternative spring break, alternative summer trip to come serve here.

We'll have over 1,000 college students come, spend a week here, serving here in nonprofits, and we use that as a recruiting arm as well.

Give 901's our give back campaign.

So people who want to stay involved get involved.

And so we challenge everybody to give an hour of pay, an hour of time each month.

And we've got hundreds of people doing that and looking for more.

And then our Choose 901 alumni program, and that's where we take 400 plus high school graduates every year, and we help them through that next 10 years through college or whatever that career option is and make sure we retain those here.

We just hit 3,454 alumni.

Can you believe that?

We are over 700 college graduates now, 82% living and working in Memphis, 91% in the state.

It's an incredible opportunity to make a huge difference.

We'll get close to 2,000 college students this fall.

So we're hopefully going to make a big impact on Memphis's future by capitalizing what we've already invested into as a community.

- When you look at those statistics and the testimonials, the impact you're having, what puts a smile on your face for the difference that you're making, that positive change in our city?

- When you get involved in these people's lives, you just see that they actually really want to be the best version of themselves, and all you're doing is just helping, you're mentoring, guiding them through that journey, especially these alumni, convincing them to stay here.

When we started two-thirds of these students who were working in these kind of schools were getting their college degrees and going to some other city.

And so but they really wanted to stay here, so getting that call to stay here and be engaged.

And so we start getting really hopeful that everything we're doing now will be further up the mountain for that next generation to stand and build on top of.

And so, you know, people are like, "Why does it matter?"

Because that is preparing for the next decade of leaders and we've got these leaders I know that are coming along.

And so it makes a lot of sense to feel like, hey, if we do this work, I know the leaders that are coming to come stand on that work and make an even bigger difference.

So I get excited as we value today because I can see tomorrow.

- So how can the community get involved and support City Leadership?

You obviously talked about Give 901.

That's an easy way, but talk about how we can get involved.

- Well, I think one of the biggest things I'd just say, Jeremy, is that, man, when you see something positive, just say something about it.

Like, that's the biggest way to get involved.

You know, I think as a city, we need more of the, not just seeing the positive things and feeling good internally, we need that to like come all the way through and go, "Oh my gosh, did you see this?

"Oh, I got to share this.

I gotta put this up."

I think there's a whole layer of people who want to be positive influencers that are scared to make that first video, that first post, that first thing.

And I just say, just breakthrough.

We need your positive voice.

We need more lights.

We need more positive megaphones.

We need more spotlights on the good news.

And so, you know, go create your own good news.

And so if 100 more people were doing that every month, goodness gracious, it would just ripple effect and reach thousands and thousands and thousands in some real positive ways.

And then I would just say is if you are listening to this and somehow you've gotten on one of Jeremy's shows and you're not already in our locker room camp of believing in this place in Memphis, I would just say is come join us on social media.

Come follow all our Choose 901 stuff.

Come find our weekly emails.

Or even come find City Leadership itself.

If you want a little more of an inside locker room view, I send a weekly email kind of some behind the scenes things, some things that are happening, the why behind maybe the what that you see on Choose 901.

And so you could come check that out as well.

But I'm assuming that if you're already here that what you really need to do is, I'd encourage you is just go find two or three more people to be just like you.

- Well, John Carroll, thank you for all you and your amazing team do to power the good.

Thank you for coming on the show.

- Hey, thank you, buddy.

[upbeat music] - They're an organization helping girls become strong, smart, and bold leaders.

We're here with the president and CEO of Girls Inc.

of Memphis, Sylvia Martinez.

And let's start out, a celebration, over 80 years at this point.

Give us a little bit of history for Girls Inc.

of Memphis.

- Awesome.

Thank you for having us here, Jeremy.

Thank you to WKNO.

So Girls Inc.

is celebrating 80 years of history here in Memphis.

We were founded in 1946.

We have 80 years of impact here in the community and 162 nationally, inspiring girls to be healthy, educated, and independent.

Something we like to call strong, smart, and bold.

- Talk about how that foundation, those pillars are woven into the different programs.

So go ahead and start diving into how the magic happens.

- Yeah.

I'll start with the easiest one 'cause it's our farm.

A lot of people think of gardening as a hobby, but Girls Inc.

has six and a half acres of actual farming work from using the tools to learning to use a tractor to planning in advance.

So the girls learn health and nutrition.

They learn culinary programming with our partners at The Sow Project, which you've had here before.

And they learn STEM education through agriculture and life science.

And so for us, that is health and nutrition, STEM education, and then they learn to give back to their community, whether it is at your family, at your neighborhood farmer's market, whether it is fighting the landfill across the street at City Council meetings, or whether it is canvassing the city, advocating for the things that they feel are right.

So the farm is an example of where strong, smart, and bold live together in unison in an ecosystem that we like to call the farm.

Other programmings like that in school, we go and do several different programmings from friendly peer-suasion, how to be able to be a strong team, to being able to do financial literacy, to doing literacy programs or math programs.

Our afterschool is similar.

We try to do STEM activities, leadership activities, and sport activities.

Our camps are designated for that.

Sports camps, STEM camps, leadership camps, or a little bit of everything.

We are currently in summer camps.

They just finished learning, depending on where they were, robotics, animation, and coding.

And we're going into the leadership component of our camp where hopefully they'll be putting up a lemonade stand near you somewhere.

- Talk about what you have a chance to see unfold with the character development and the development of these girls.

- Well, I think that's one of the coolest things.

That's probably one of my favorite things about this job.

I have been here with Girls Inc.

of Memphis for almost 10 years.

So that means I've seen girls go from age nine to graduating, and that's a big spectrum, but it's also a lot of change.

I mean, they go through all of the physical, emotional, psychological changes that youth go through.

And so there's times where I see a girl that started shy, that couldn't speak in front of 500 people, and now becomes our regular at our luncheons as though she is running the show.

I have girls that come in not wanting to be outside and you see them pulling weeds and, you know, carrying the wheelbarrows like if it was their farm.

You see them take ownership of their space, you see them take leadership roles touring important people on their own site, and telling them what they're doing from their perspective.

And so for me, that is one of the coolest things to be able to see a girl with some hesitations to being a bold leader in our community.

I mean, you know, an example, I'm CEO of Girls Inc.

of Memphis, and when I started, you couldn't get me to raise my hand and speak in front of the group.

And look at me, I am here doing interviews with you.

- Talk about it from your perspective on why the work that Girls Inc.

of Memphis is doing is so important for the larger community.

So talk about the ripple impact that you're having in the community.

Why is this work so important?

- We are preparing the girls to be the leaders in your community.

That is your bankers, your health professionals, your lawyers, your psychologists, your teachers.

At Girls Inc.

we are preparing them so that they can live a healthy, independent, and educated life, that they can stand by their choices, that they can take responsibility for these choices, whether it is to invest their hard-earned paycheck at the youth farm, or whether it is to decide that, you know, they are going to go ahead and open a club at their afterschool program because they have a need that they need to address.

The goal for us is to prepare them for interesting work and economic independence, and that is super important now and always, right, to be able to do something that you love that gives you the means to live the life that you want to in a world where sometimes those opportunities are not afforded or presented.

We try to give them that opportunity, that exposure, and that learning so that they are able to take that further and implement that in a way that suits their ultimate goals.

- You have a number of volunteer opportunities ongoing.

You have big events and small events and mentorship opportunities.

Talk about how the community can support Girls Inc.

of Memphis.

- We wouldn't be able to do what we do every day at Girls Inc.

without the investment of volunteers.

It takes 500 volunteers a year for us to do what we do, whether it is having a holiday party where you can man one of the activity tables or a harvest festival to taking care of that amazing farm that I just talked about.

So we partner with Volunteer Odyssey to promote our volunteer opportunities.

Bring your tools, bring your gloves, and if you don't have any, we'll have some for you.

But we also have ongoing volunteer opportunities during camps because we serve our girls breakfast, lunch, and snack, and so we need somebody to help us distribute all those meals.

We also need help with our afterschool program.

Sometimes girls need a little bit more one-on-one help with their math or their reading, and so we welcome all the volunteers.

We do background checks on those that want to come and do a series.

Like, if you're a Zumba instructor and you want to come and do a Zumba session with us, come on in.

And if you just want to come for the day and pull some weeds, then we welcome you as well.

- So where do we go to learn more and get involved with Girls Inc.

of Memphis?

- Check us out in your favorite social media or at girlsincmemphis.org, or give us a call, 901-523-0217.

- Well, Sylvia, thank you for all you and your amazing team do to power the good.

Thank you for coming on the show.

- Thank you for inviting us.

See you next time.

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

The 2025 Individual Collegiate Award went to Anaya Bond.

[gentle music] - My name is Anaya Bond.

I am a junior and an environmental science major, an Africana studies minor at Rhodes College, and I'm also a Bonner Scholar.

One of our core values as Bonners is to work with the community and not for.

And essentially that means that we respect the autonomy of our community partners.

We try to let go of our biases and really just listen to the nonprofits about what they need.

It's a part of the assignment as a Bonner Scholar dedicating 8 to 10 hours a week.

I would say volunteering, especially through the Red Cross, has humbled me.

It's made me get out of my comfort zone and really just connect with people who I probably wouldn't have had the chance to before.

I started my freshman year, so now I've been there for almost three years now.

And I've just enjoyed every second of it.

I've been helping out with their annual Red Boa Bash to raise funds for victims of house fires, which is a pretty big problem in Memphis.

Sickle cell is also a prominent issue in Memphis and throughout the Delta region.

And so through the Red Cross, I'm helping them promote blood drives because it's an essential treatment for people who have sickle cell.

And I'm just hoping to spread more awareness about the disease.

I'm just getting started with a research project with a professor at Rhodes.

She knows people who are also part of the Sickle Cell Foundation of Tennessee.

So hoping to somehow do a collaboration between the Red Cross and the Sickle Cell Foundation.

And yeah, this is just a start of something really amazing that I hope I can continue even after I graduate.

[gentle music] - They're a nonprofit giving people a voice through storytelling that builds empathy, healing, and joy.

We're here with the founder and director of advancement with Everystory, Virginia Murphy.

Let's start out, give us some background, give us some context for Everystory.

- Thanks, Jeremy.

It's really nice to be here.

So Everystory, formerly Playback Memphis.

At our core, we are an improvisational storytelling and witnessing theatre where people come and share reflections, moments, true stories about their lives and meet a team of diverse and beautiful actors who listen deeply and then play back what they've heard.

And so we have public performances, but we also, really the heart of our work is in our programming in which we train and share this kind of listening and storytelling and witnessing theatre with the community.

And that's, yeah, that's the short version.

- Talk about the impact that you've had a chance to see firsthand.

So give us an idea of the impact that Everystory is having.

- So, and I want to name that we have doubled our impact.

This has been a tremendous year.

We now have a programming staff which is made up of individuals who are part of our ensemble who are artists, some of whom were program participants in the past.

And so I'll just describe a moment from my most recent performance.

We have a partnership with Memphis Allies.

They work with young people who are at the highest risk of gun violence.

And so we have a program, Be The Peace, where we train them in the art of playback theater to perform with us.

So part of that is that they are building skills across six attitudes that we claim are vital to our work; patience, trust, humor, non-judgment, gratitude, and curiosity.

And so recently after eight sessions of training with us, they performed with us and they also share.

And so one young man was sharing about, you know, his awareness of his resistance to the work initially and how it had helped him to grow patience and also to take risks and to be a better listener.

And so it was a wonderful, like those are the experiences that I love where we train particularly young people in the community in the art form and then they get to perform with us and be celebrated and seen and affirmed, and, you know, they speak to how much it grows their confidence and skills like patience, which don't we all need.

And also love.

You know, one young man shared how, Aida actually asked the question, how have you been changed by this work?

And he said, "It's helped me to love myself."

You know, so it's a space where people feel deeply seen and heard and valued and, yeah.

- Share the good news.

Introduce the new executive director for Everystory.

- Oh, I'm so excited to do this.

So yes, our board was so intentional in this search and I am so grateful that Aida Nozick is now the new executive director.

And she has a wealth of executive leadership experience both in Memphis and on the national stage.

And I knew within 30 seconds of meeting her that she had the heart for this work.

And so we have really been, yeah, enjoying this season of transition.

So I will introduce her.

Aida.

And she will take the chair and thank you, Jeremy.

- Well, let's officially welcome to the show, Aida Nozick, executive director with Everystory.

Congratulations.

Welcome.

Give us a little bit about what makes you excited to step into this role as the new executive director for Everystory.

- Well, I have to tell you, as I learned layer by layer what Everystory does, I felt like they were talking about me and what I've been doing for the last 20 years of my life in nonprofit.

So it's a beautiful organization that does really impactful work and really reaches the individual and sees the individual as a whole.

And I wanted to be a part of that.

And so then yes, so now I'm here.

- Well, there are a number of opportunities for the community to support Everystory and to be a part of the magic and to experience it.

Memphis Matters is one of those.

Talk about some of the different ways the community can get behind and support Everystory.

- Oh, there are many, many ways to get behind us.

You know, in the upcoming year, we plan on doing more of the Playback Theater shows.

We have six.

And those will be announced on our website shortly so that you can go and get information to that.

Please attend.

It's open to the public.

And it's a really great way for you to sort of wrap around in your mind what we do here.

- Talk about financial support and why that's so important to be able to pour into Everystory.

- Oh, the financial support is vital to what we do.

It really helps support the community-facing work that we do primarily in schools and with youth.

We utilize, like other nonprofits, the revenue that we generate through the partnership with other agencies.

Without it, we wouldn't be able to do the work that we do facing youth, so it's very important.

You can also donate to us directly on our website.

- We'll wrap up with where we can go to learn more and get involved and to know all the upcoming performances with Everystory.

- Okay, so our Instagram is everystoryorg.

Please check that out.

We post constantly and remind you of upcoming shows.

And obviously everystory.org.

It's a wonderful website that has a lot of information about what we're doing and obviously where to access all of our contact information.

So please check those out.

- Well, Aida, congratulations.

Welcome again.

Thank you for all you, Virginia, and your amazing team do to power the good.

Thank you for coming on the show.

- Thank you.

Thank you, Jeremy.

Thank you for having us.

[upbeat music] - Every great community begins with people who are willing to speak up, step forward, lead by example, and serve.

The power of finding your voice is the confidence to lead and make a difference changing our community.

We're fortunate to have organizations like City Leadership, Girls Inc.

of Memphis, and Everystory that are powering the good here in our city.

Through their campaigns like Choose 901, Teach 901, Serve 901, and Give 901, City Leadership is recruiting, developing, and catalyzing leaders who don't need a title to take responsibility for the place we call home.

Girls Inc.

of Memphis shows us what's possible when we invest in young people and help them grow into strong, confident leaders.

And Everystory reminds us that every voice matters because every story has the power to build understanding, inspire hope, and create change.

Finding your voice isn't just about being heard, it's about using your gifts to make a difference.

So get involved, volunteer, support these organizations and others like them.

Together we can help more people find their voice and in doing so, continue changing our community for the better.

So where will you help power the good and become a 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 that you'll continue joining with us to create a spark for the Mid-South.

- From Higginbotham's founding in 1948, our insurance agency 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.

Higginbotham Insurance and Financial Services is honored to be the presenting sponsor of The Spark.

[upbeat music] [acoustic guitar chords]