A 14-year-old boy panhandling at a Mapco in Midtown this summer caught the eye of Memphian James Davis.

Davis, who owns L.R. Clothier on Cooper Street, stopped and spoke with the boy that August day, and then connected him with his friend Randy Taylor, a Memphis Police Department officer who mentors youth through his local nonprofit, Hope Activated.

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Taylor learned Zuntari Mosley had not been going to school and had several family issues. With the help of the Department of Children’s Services, Taylor began fostering the teenager and enrolled him at Kirby Middle School. 

Mosley was also recruited to join the programming at Hope Activated.

Founded in 2021, Hope Activated provides mentoring services and training in entrepreneurship, gun violence intervention, and driver’s license practice exams, to name a few. 

It started inside Real Life Ministries, 1520 Oakwood St., in North Memphis, and relocated this summer to 988 Mississippi Blvd. — next door to The Four Way Soul Food Restaurant in South Memphis.

Randy Taylor always had the idea for Hope Activated in the back of his mind, but his motivation strengthened after he lost one son to gang violence and another was sent to prison for attempted first-degree murder. 

“I started thinking, ‘So what’s my purpose? What am I here for? When I look out at society, what irritates me?’” Taylor said. 

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Taylor often meets his mentees while he’s out on the job. He said he looks beyond the surface, and sometimes people who seem like hardened criminals are just “misguided, sometimes unloved, youth.”

He believes if these young people had hope, they would not commit crimes.

“Without hope, all of us are gone,” Taylor said. “So I feel like this particular organization, that we can activate the hope inside the mentee and hope will drive them to create the life that they want for themselves.”

‘It was just good to see this officer, this pastor’

In 2018, a mutual acquaintance introduced Taylor to Althea Greene, who leads Real Life Ministries and is chair of the Memphis-Shelby County Schools Board of Education.

In 2021, the two talked over breakfast, and Taylor shared his vision with Greene. Then she gave him a set of keys to her church and let him use the space rent-free for six months. 

“I’m always concerned and interested when people are doing things for youth,” Greene said. “I’m just honored that Hope Activated has saved so many of our young (people). I’ve seen how he has worked with them.”

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Taylor asked Greene for help getting a teenage girl registered for school. 

“It was just good to see this officer, this pastor, he met me at the school to make sure that young lady got registered and she had everything she needed,” Greene said. “And we see so many people in Memphis that start nonprofits with youth. … Often, they get funding, and they don’t do what they said they would do.”

After a while, Hope Activated moved out of Real Life Ministries and started gathering in the Benjamin L. Hooks Library in East Memphis. But as the group grew, Taylor started looking for a building of his own.

‘It was just kind of meant to be’

Enter Patrice and Jerry Thompson.

One day this summer, while he was on duty, Taylor stopped to eat at The Four Way. While he was there, he responded to a panhandler who was trespassing. 

“I did my job, and our relationship formed from there,” Taylor said. 

Taylor discovered the Thompsons, who own The Four Way, also owned a vacant commercial space next door. He pitched the idea of moving Hope Activated into the space, and the Thompsons agreed. 

He moved into the building in July.

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Patrice Thompson wanted to use the building for a nonprofit that fed the community, but she hasn’t yet had the opportunity to bring that to fruition.

“But he told us what he was doing,” Thompson said. “He mentioned that he needed a space and ... everything just fell into place. It was just kind of meant to be in the fact that I wanted to do a nonprofit to help the community. ... So the fact that he’s serving the community, it means a lot to me.”

‘Keeping your mindset on the right things’

When mentees get to Hope Activated after school on Mondays, they eat and play video games. Then, they start their class for the afternoon. As an extra incentive, Taylor fires off some quiz questions and rewards right answers with cash, basketballs, footballs or gift cards.

When The Daily Memphian visited Hope Activated, the kids were practicing for their driver’s license exams.

Ayden Sayles, 15, is a Germantown High School 10th grader who met Taylor at church. He started participating in the program in the spring, and he said it’s helping him realize his goal of becoming a business owner or barber.

“I learned about a lot of things dealing with choosing the right path and keeping your mindset on the right things because there’s a lot of influences out here that could change the way you could proceed in life,” Sayles said. “Being around the right people and having a great mentor like Randy Taylor is a good thing to have.”

Mosley said he is looking forward to participating in the driver’s license test when he is older and wants to learn about entrepreneurship.

“When I turn 16, I really want to start making my own money and saving my money so I can have money when I get grown,” Mosley said.

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As part of the career selection and entrepreneurship programs, mentors conduct mock interviews and help the participants with resumes and job applications. They also show them how to dress for interviews.

Taylor often brings professionals in to talk about their careers.

“I just believe that they have to have someone to model (themselves after), and what’s better than to talk to a person who has gone the way and they have accomplished what you say you want to do in life?” Taylor said. “So we want to fuel that, and we don’t want to dampen that mindset of entrepreneurship.”

A large part of the program centers around gun violence prevention, which is led by a convicted felon who turned his life around, Taylor said. 

“I’m a strong believer that we can learn just as much, if not more, from the negative,” Taylor said. “You talk to somebody who has ruined their life, and they’re willing to share with you what not to do, that’s a strong impact. It’s not just textbook.”

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In Hope Activated, youth also learn how to dress for court. They’re taught how to act socially around law enforcement and during confrontations that could occur in everyday places.

“We teach them how to actually take the lead and how that situation would turn out,” Taylor said. “And when we present it in a way as they are the leader in determining how the situation is going to go, it empowers them.”

‘We really do believe we’re doing God’s work’

Hope Activated is currently providing services to 15 to 20 children. Throughout its existence, it’s worked with more than 80 minors. 

The program has attracted youth from Booker T. Washington High School, Central High School and others.

Other services provided include: 

• Gun violence intervention 
• Career selection
• Financial literacy
• Fueling entrepreneurship
• Social interaction & interaction with law enforcement
• Young Fathers Program
• Young Mothers program

In the future, Taylor hopes to hire a grant writer to help sustain the organization, which is currently self-funded. He has set up a GoFundMe to raise money for a new transport van. 

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Taylor also wants to partner with MSCS; build a larger, multi-classroom facility; and purchase housing for foster children.

Taylor looks for Hope Activated to be a “major resource” and a “safe place” in areas like South Memphis.

“We have hope,” Taylor said, “because we really do believe we’re doing God’s work.”