The Elephant Men
Reginald Caster and Robert Harris, co-founders and directors
Martin Luther King Educational and Cultural Center
620 S. Lauderdale St.
Memphis, Tenn 38126
(901) 775-7259

This inspiring grassroots program is the invention of two men who grew up in and around a gritty inner-city housing project just east of downtown Memphis, enjoyed modest success -- one as a small-business owner, the other as a soldier and police officer -- and decided to put something back into their neighborhood, because it was the right thing to do and for the sake of their own children.

Reginald Caster and his good friend, Memphis Police Officer (later Sgt.) Robert Harris, hatched the idea for what became The Elephant Men while they were on a fishing trip about 10 years ago. Although they didn’t use the terms at the time, they simply started “mentoring” and “role modeling,” working with small groups of neighborhood youngsters with the idea that getting them on the right track early -- beginning at age 9 -- would help keep them from getting onto the wrong track later on.

They organized a drill team, set up basketball games, and, one day after reading about how the mighty African elephant was becoming extinct because greedy people killed them for ivory, came up with “The Elephant Men” as a metaphor for inner-city youngsters at risk of losing their lives to drugs, crack and cocaine. Taking the slogan, “Protecting our youth with the strength and conviction of the elephant,” they devised a circular logo incorporating the elements of “education,” “strength,” “morality,” “love,” “guidance” and “discipline” surrounding the central point, “respect.” “If a young man has all these things,” Caster explained, “centered on a respect for self and others, he can make it in this world.”

The elephant metaphor came back again in a news story from India, involving a baby elephant killed by a train, an event that drew dozens of adult elephants out of the forest to circle around the body, blocking the train and forcing it to discontinue its journey. The lesson the group took from that, Caster said, was, “If we can get the big bull elephants out -- men, not black or white, just men -- we can help these boys, if we’re consistent and sincere.”

So, inventing a program one step at a time, finding grants and donations when they could and reaching into their own pockets when they couldn’t, Caster and Harris came up with a half-dozen variations on the central theme of giving young men (ages 9 to 13) opportunities to build self-respect and pride while working with adults as role models. A $5,000 award prompted them to form a non-profit association so they could accept the money.

One very successful project, a four-week summer program called Summer Work Initiative, brought together more than 100 youngsters in sharp T-shirt uniforms who fanned out across the city doing litter pickup and cleaning chores, for which each received a $200 gift certificate for back-to-school clothing as pay. (To qualify for this program, youngsters have to persuade an adult at their school -- teacher, administrator, even a cafeteria worker or janitor -- to write a letter of recommendation. This measure not only gives young people an early sample of the adult job market but, Caster points out, gives them a strong incentive to behave well in school.)

A thoughtful, comprehensive “Life Skills” course sends the Elephant Men into city schools with a workbook and text covering such fundamentals as self-discipline, positive attitude, attire, friends, money, even table manners; this program reaches an estimated 2,000 youngsters in 15 city schools every year.

The Blazers Program (“Blazing your way into the future”) works with youngsters to help them dream of career goals that they can accomplish, then examine those goals critically to determine whether they’re realistic, and if so, how to begin making plans early to ensure that they’ll achieve them.

In the group’s newest program, “Passing the Manners,” Elephant Men youngsters formed a city youth basketball team, a privilege that comes with significant responsibilities, focusing as much on teamwork and sportsmanship as winning -- and offers an exciting incentive to participate, in the form of $450 worth of high-quality basketball attire, from warmup jackets and jerseys to athletic shoes, a $17,000 gift from Nike.

“Our goal,” Caster said, “Is to create a child that’s well-rounded, self-aware, community-aware and self-disciplined. We know it works. We have some kids in college now, and the best day of the year for us is the weekend before school starts, when we’ll see our boys in the malls getting ready for school.”

The Elephant Men has won numerous awards, including recognition as a “Point of Light” by then-President Bush. Caster has bigger dreams, though: He’d love to see the program replicated, throughout the Southeast and some day, perhaps, across the nation.

All the feature stories on @GRASS-ROOTS.ORG's pages are reported and written by Robin Garr, a prize-winning journalist who has visited more than 500 innovative grassroots programs in all 50 states since 1990.

Browse his book, Reinvesting In America, at Amazon.com.

Send him E-mail.

Back to the @GRASS-ROOTS.ORG Home Page