“The 18th Ward” with Lowrey Crews
Shownotes:
Having spaces for people to gather, play, and enjoy life with one another can change individual lives and whole communities. By and large, those spaces have begun to disappear. Creating those spaces and times for kids to gather is the passion project of today’s guest, Lowrey Crews.
Lowrey is the founder and CEO of the 18th Ward, a non-profit that provides high-quality, low-cost youth sports programs in New Orleans. All kids are welcome to join the 18th Ward, regardless of race, gender, income, or neighborhood. As a kid growing up in Tupelo, Mississippi (along with Chris), Lowrey got to experience the formation that comes from not only being able to play sports, but to do so in a lower-stakes environment that fostered teamwork and friendship. Many families can’t financially afford the expenses that come with competitive travel ball teams, so Lowrey is providing a path for all kids in New Orleans to reap the benefits of simply getting to play.
He is also a longtime friend of Chris’s, so he probably has some dirt he could share.
Resources:
Learn more about The 18th Ward--website, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok
Transcript:
Eddie Rester 00:00 Hi. I'm Eddie Rester.
Chris McAlilly 00:01
I'm Chris McAlilly. Welcome to The Weight.
Eddie Rester 00:04
Today we have Lowrey Crews with us. Lowrey heads up The 18th Ward. He's a lifetime friend of
yours, Chris. Any memories you have him?
Chris McAlilly 00:15
He's just the beast on the soccer field, on the football field, on the baseball field. And now he's taken a lot of that passion and love of sports and created a really amazing nonprofit model that's bringing kids across New Orleans together from all the different neighborhoods into into a community around sports. What did you hear in the conversation?
Eddie Rester 00:36
I think I'm reminded again and again that just creating spaces for people to be with one another and to enjoy life together, it changes lives. It changes communities. And just for a lot of different reasons, those have faded in our world, and when you think about a large city like New Orleans, some of the well documented problems that it has, it's just a reminder that sometimes the best solution is the one that's always in front of us. Let's get people together,
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playing games, figuring out what life looks like together. And I think Lowrey provides a great model for that, pulling people together from across the 17 wards of New Orleans. What about you?
Chris McAlilly 01:24
I think for me, I see a lot of college students here at the university are just young people. They're trying to figure out, "What is my passion? What do I care about? And how do I give my life and my work to something that makes a difference?" And oftentimes, you come across somebody who's got a successful model, or they figured out something. You see them 20 years into their journey, or you see them 10 years into their journey. And you think man, I don't even know how do I get from A to B? And one of the things I think that is cool about the conversation today is that you kind of hear Lowrey talk through how one set of experiences get applied to another part of the journey. And he talks about a moment where he had, you know, a group of 40 kids or 80 kids, and he needed to solve a problem for that small group of kids. And that led in the direction of something that could be scalable. And so for me, it's just a reminder that you start small, start with something you're passionate about. And with enough hard work and surrounding yourself with good people, you know, seeking out mentorship, it can become something really cool.
Eddie Rester 02:33
It's a great story. And I'm thankful that we got to talk to him today. I think y'all are gonna enjoy listening to him and his story all the way to the end. There's ways you can reach out and support financially predominantly, but other ways as well. So make sure you listen all the way to the end so we can let you in on that.
Chris McAlilly 02:57
[INTRO] Life can be heavy. So heavy, in fact that the weight we carry can sometimes cause us
to lose hope.
Eddie Rester 03:06
But we've all come across those people in life who seem to be experiencing the same world we
live in, except they maintain a great depth of joy and hope.
Chris McAlilly 03:15
A former generation called this gravitas. It was there description of a soul that had gained
enough weightiness to be attractive like all things with a gravitational pull.
Eddie Rester 03:26
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Those are the people we want to talk to. On this podcast we talk to pastors, entrepreneurs,
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Those are the people we want to talk to. On this podcast we talk to pastors, entrepreneurs, artists, mental health experts, and many others.
Chris McAlilly 03:36
We'll create space for heavy topics, but we'll be listening for a quality of soul that could be
called gravitas.
Eddie Rester 03:43
Welcome to The Weight. [END INTRO]
Chris McAlilly 03:45
We're here today with Lowrey Crews. I've known Lowrey for a long, long time, Eddie. Lowrey
and I are good friends, going back to high school.
Eddie Rester 03:55
I understand you played soccer together. Can we verify that is true?
Lowrey Crews 03:59
We can verify. State champion.
Eddie Rester 04:01
State champion, Tupelo High School.
Chris McAlilly 04:03
That's right. Glory days. Let's go
Eddie Rester 04:06
Lowrey, the rumor is that on the soccer pitch, Chris McAlilly had somewhat of a temper. Would
that be... Can you also verify that or is that... Can we talked about that later?
Lowrey Crews 04:19
Cool, calm, and collected always.
Cool, calm, and collected always.
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Chris McAlilly 04:21 Always.
Lowrey Crews 04:21
And put a ball in the back of the net.
Chris McAlilly 04:24 Every time. That's right.
Eddie Rester 04:25 Every time.
Chris McAlilly 04:26
Glory days. Eddie, how many goals did you score in high school?
Eddie Rester 04:31
You know, I grew up in an era before soccer hit Mississippi. I did have a soccer ball at some point because we had the Pele Atari video game. And we thought that soccer was a thing, could be one day thing. So.
Chris McAlilly 04:47
Lowrey, did you play other sports? I don't remember. Were you...
Lowrey Crews 04:49
I did. Baseball and football.
Chris McAlilly 04:51
Baseball. Yeah, you were three. I remember now. Okay, now I'm remembering Lowry Crews was like, he was up here. Everybody else was down here, and there was Lowrey. Three sports star.
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Eddie Rester 05:02 Three sports star.
Chris McAlilly 05:03 That's right.
Lowrey Crews 05:04 Kept me out of trouble.
Eddie Rester 05:07
Which plays into what we're going to talk about today, I know. But Lowrey, just give us a thumbnail sketch of what's your journey been like since high school. Where all have you been? What all have you done since then? Because we're going to talk about kind of where you are in the journey now.
Lowrey Crews 05:23
Yeah, after high school, I went to Vanderbilt in Nashville, and was fortunate enough to play a little bit of soccer while I was there. Halfway through, Title IX happened, and we lost our soccer team. And a lot of us played club soccer together and ended up playing in a regional tournament in Tupelo, so things started to come full circle there. And after college, went to Charlotte, North Carolina, and was a teacher there. Taught seventh and eighth grade science. And after three years, I met my wife who's from Jackson, and met her in Tupelo. And then we moved to New Orleans shortly after. Been there ever since.
Chris McAlilly 06:10
So New Orleans is your home base.
Lowrey Crews 06:12
New Orleans is home. I was a teacher and a principal there, founded an elementary school in New Orleans East in 2014, one of the hardest hit areas from Katrina. Schools had to be rebuilt. And I was working at a part of New Orleans, centrally located, but a lot of kids and families were on the bus from New Orleans East, which, with traffic and the distances, kids were waking up at 5am to get on a bus and not getting home till after seven o'clock. So another assistant principal, she and I started an elementary school. And that's where our kids have gone. I've got two boys going into fifth and third grade. And so they went to elementary school at a place I
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started. It was one of those things where I said if it's good enough for... If it's not good enough for my kids, not good enough for anybody's kids. So a lot of pressure to build a school and make it something special, but I'm proud of what we accomplished.
Chris McAlilly 07:12
Where did the, I guess your love for, passion for education, where were the seeds of that in
your life?
Lowrey Crews 07:22
I mean, I think goes back to just growing up in good public schools in Tupelo and having a bunch of great teachers and principals and coaches. And that's where I met all my friends and then they threw a ball out there. And then we just started to become better friends because we were playing sports together. And so I think that's just how I built community. And so I guess you could say throughout my journey, I haven't found any other way to build community, rather than through schools and through sports.
Chris McAlilly 07:51
Yeah, I think you know, one of the things that is unique about Tupelo that I wasn't aware of when I was in school there is just how unique the public schools were in the context of Mississippi and its racial history. There's a book by Joseph Crespino, "In Search of Another Country," that's written about kind of the period of time in Mississippi from around 1960 to around 1980. And this guy grew up in Mississippi, and he became a historian. And he kind of tracks where the Ku Klux Klan was working, and where private schools cropped up over the course of time, and the way in which the white population in Mississippi kind of lost touch with public education for a period of time for racial reasons. And then he kind of tracks the way in which that didn't happen in Tupelo. It's a fascinating story. It's one of those stories that... And, you know, there's a direct line from, you know, some of the leaders, both the political and business and community leaders of Tupelo in the 60s, 70s, and 80s and some of the things that we experienced later on in Tupelo. It was a unique setting for you to grow up, for sure.
Lowrey Crews 09:13
It is. I probably took it for granted, too. My wife grew up going to public schools in Jackson, and she was one of the few white students in a predominately Black school. And then in Charlotte, North Carolina, in New Orleans, I found much of the same. So growing up in a diverse setting was... I didn't realize how unique it was to Tupelo.
Chris McAlilly 09:34
Right. And there's a community of us there, you know. I know that's part of your family story as well, just building community as a part of who you are. I wonder about Teach For America, though. What? And for folks who don't know, I mean, I think most people know Teach For
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America, but if folks out there don't know about that, how did that shape and form you just in your professional journey?
Lowrey Crews 09:58
When I was graduating college, I was on a medical pathway. I worked at the Tupelo hospital growing up and shadowed some doctors, but wanted to take a year off and just explore the world before I kept my head in the books for a while. So the pitch was sort of, you know, a chance to make a difference. And so I sort of jumped in head on because it was an opportunity to take a couple of years and do something meaningful in the community, and then get back to what I thought my journey was. So I started teaching. And that first week was rough, breaking up fights on day one, and having kids look at me, wondering who I am. And I hadn't really explored that much growing up the way I did, with privileges that I had become accustomed to, and wasn't really schooled on what life was like outside of the bubble where I grew up. So in order to make connections with my students, I started coaching. I coached football, basketball, soccer, and that's when my students started listening. That's when I was able to start teaching, because of that relationship piece that had to be there before any learning took place.
Eddie Rester 11:23
My wife was a teacher. She retired last year, after 26, 27 years. And we still laugh about her first week when she was a teacher, because you want to go in there and be their friend, and you think they're going to immediately respect you because you're going to be kind to them. And that's not the way, not the way it works for teachers. You have to figure out a different way to connect with them. So she ended up actually coaching a sport she knew nothing about. But it's interesting that your sporting life drew you back to them. What made you decide not to leave teaching, after a few years, after the Teach For America commitments up?
Lowrey Crews 12:09
I saw a difference. I saw the relationships turn into opportunity. So the kids that I taught middle school, and they'd go off to high school, and they'd be confronted with a whole different set of realities and didn't have many places to turn. So they would come back. They would walk back from high school, when it got out, to the middle school where I taught, and they'd want to talk. They'd want to hang out. They'd want to help coach. They'd want to connect with the younger generation, because they mostly felt sort of isolated and lonely and weren't really sure if they were up for the next four years and some of the barriers that they were going to face. And so I just figured I wasn't done, because a year made a difference. Two years made a difference. But I just saw the journey ahead of my kids, and I wanted to be on that with them. So I've got a lot of students who I still remain in touch with. And in fact, when I moved back to New Orleans, and we stayed in touch with their families, and three of our founding staff members for my nonprofit were former students from middle school. They moved to New Orleans, got them jobs, full time jobs, and then in their spare time, they volunteered to support this new community that was building in New Orleans. So yeah, it's definitely come full circle from, you know, I taught them as middle school students, and now they're teaching my kids how to play sports and so much more. Because there's a lot embedded in them.
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Chris McAlilly 13:44
Yeah, it's so cool. So talk about about that kind of moving out of being in the classroom, being
in administration in a school setting, to the work that you're doing now with The 18th Ward.
Lowrey Crews 13:56
So when I started the elementary school, our kids and families were looking for opportunities, and what we now call that out of school time. So when the bell rings at three, when kids go home on a bus, what are they going home to? What are they doing? How are they spending their time? You know, and I grew up in a place where there was a high functioning recreation department and my parents could pay a little bit of money, and I could play sports year round. And that's what I did. That's what motivated me to do my homework. That's what motivated me to stay out of trouble and make good grades. And so I just kind of figured that's how it worked in the rest of the world. But in New Orleans, those opportunities didn't exist. I could pay for them for my own biological children. But most of the families I was teaching didn't have that kind of disposable income. And so I wanted to start providing sports at school. And I remember having basketball tryouts for third and fourth graders, and 80 kids showed up to the gym.
Eddie Rester 15:03 Wow.
Lowrey Crews 15:04
I should have gotten some RSVPs. Eighty kids shoved a gym. You know, I was a math teacher at one point. Do the math. There's not enough room on a team for that many kids. But tryouts went pretty quickly. Because you ask 10 year olds to dribble, you can see pretty quickly who's gonna make the team. And so I just... My mind started racing. Well, how come, you know, we teach kids so many more complex things starting in kindergarten, how come we can't teach them how to dribble a basketball? And then what kind of opportunities will that unlock in terms of their confidence and skill building and just belief in themselves? So I realized I had to design a model to provide athletics that wasn't strictly team-based or strictly based on your athleticism, because that's how a lot of us get to continue to play. So I started looking into different models, and they're not that many out there that I could replicate. So I just kind of use my teaching background and say, okay, so I've got 80 kids. I can split the court and the fourths. How many kids are going to be in each fourth at each time and what can I teach them? And how do I... You know, they don't know how to dribble. How do I break that down? The same way I might a complex math problem or how would I break it down for a struggling reader. So I just took what I learned through education and translated that into the world of sports.
Chris McAlilly 16:23
[LAUGHTER] That's an understatement!
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Lowrey Crews 16:23
And then after basketball season, I took about 20 of my students from the school to a city park in New Orleans, centrally located spot, just green space forever. And then about 20 kids of former and current educators, people that I had come in contact with, we started the soccer community. So I taught 40 kids how to play soccer, similar model: break them into small groups, teach them skills, make sure they have fun, make sure they want to come back next week. Forty kids turned into 4,000 over the last five years. And so I needed more coaches, so I started... I started hiring my former students and then started this workforce program. So now as we expand, we create more jobs. And so if we add 2,000 more youth to our programs, ages three to 12, that also means that, you know, we can create 200 more jobs. And so we pay our teenagers, starting at 15 an hour, increased responsibility up to 25 an hour. Now, some of them five years later, have you know, gotten into full time jobs with health benefits through our organization, working with us, and then working with partner organizations who have jobs to offer. So really trying to create this pipeline from the moment you're three and we know you can learn how to do things, start building from an early age and then provide a pathway. So a three year old turns 13, they can start coaching and working in the same programs that they played in with the same community, and then start to see themselves as not just an athlete, but as a leader, as a servant to the community. And so, yeah. The journey continues five years in, I got a lot of big plans for the next five.
Chris McAlilly 18:15 That's amazing.
Eddie Rester 18:16
It is amazing. And so are you still working at the school? Or is this now your full time?
Lowrey Crews 18:23
Transitioned. I'm full time, have been for the last two years. Had to kind of take a pay cut and a leap of faith and it paid off because we were able to triple in size the first year. We doubled in size last year. Now I have a full time staff of seven who help and then 438 high school and college students who worked with us this past year. So yeah, it creates the kind of opportunity that I know every kid deserves, and I know that I could afford for my own kids, but just not feeling comfortable being out in the world paying for my kids to play soccer or baseball, knowing that kids that they're sitting in a classroom with can't do that. And the effects have been far beyond... I mean, I didn't have this... I told you I had 80 kids, and I had a problem to solve. I didn't expect to be talking about how playing sports is impacting the physical and mental well being of our kids. I didn't think about talking about systemic racism and how our diverse community is a community of allies to sort of make our city a little more equitable, a little more inclusive. And I didn't anticipate talking about economic mobility. I mean, some of my students who didn't have, couldn't afford things, I started putting allowance in their pockets once a month because my parents did that for me, and I didn't know what else to do. Because I couldn't be there all the time. I couldn't teach high school and just stick with them through the ups and downs. And so that was really the seed that got a lot of my students through high
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school into college. And so I was like, well, well, I need to be putting money back into the community, not just saying, "Well, you can play soccer for free," because soccer gets real expensive in particular. So there's this whole economic model. And so we started to see how we could have an economic impact on the community. So it was all kind of embedded from growing up but wasn't part of the original plan.
Chris McAlilly 20:32 Go for it, Eddie.
Eddie Rester 20:33
I was just gonna say youth sports in general, everywhere had become... The economic barriers to entry are so intense when rec baseball and soccer and softball, those leagues are failing, even in towns in Mississippi, because kids are getting pulled very early on into travel baseball, travel soccer, travel everything. And so there are these economic barriers that get put in place that keep kids from doing the thing that all three of us got to do when we were young, which is just enjoy sports. And I'm so glad.e I mean, sports teaches so many lessons across you know, just across the years, whether it's teamwork, time management, skills development, all those kinds of things. When you think about your work, how has it been received in New Orleans? I know it's called the 18th Ward. You're attempting to draw kids from all 17 wards. What's been the response? How has that worked for you drawing kids from different wards, different spaces to play together?
Lowrey Crews 21:47
That's a good question. And I think part of it is families join because they want their kids to have that opportunity to play and have fun and meet new friends and receive some of the benefits of sports. And then after they join, they realize that it's about a whole lot more. We don't do a lot of marketing or communicating related to our impact areas, they just step onto a field or court and realize this looks different. This feels different, sounds different. The coaches, they're not yelling. People are happy. They're playing hard and well and competing, but in an environment that doesn't seem as competitive as some of the world of travel sports that our kids are sort of forced into. So yeah, The 18th Ward, the name came from the fact that there are 17 distinct wards, neighborhoods. And our goal was to make sure that if you grew up in New Orleans, you had an opportunity to meet a kid, a family who didn't live in your neighborhood, because we know the benefits of that. And so yeah, we have families from 22 different zip codes, over 90 different schools. And so I think that and survey results, you know, would you recommend this program to your friends and family? Overwhelming yes. And so that's sort of the response that we've gotten, and that's what's driven the opportunity and the need to grow. I could have just done this for my kids and their peers, in a park, in a green space. And we could have just kind of continued that. But there was an unanticipated amount of demand. And I think it's because our schools are segregated, our churches are segregated. You go into a restaurant, which food is very popular in New Orleans, you're either going to be in a predominately Black restaurant or predominately white restaurant. There's just not a lot of diverse spaces. There's not. And so we're just limiting so many opportunities for people on both ends of the spectrum. Because these life changing relationships were part of my life, provided
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opportunities for me, and I want to make sure that our kids and families have those same opportunities. And I don't want my kids growing up in a world that, you know, just exists, and I'm not doing anything about it. So I think going to diverse public schools in Tupelo was, seems like a luxury now. And so, you know, I didn't want to my kids to grow up thinking that the way New Orleans is, is just the way the world is or the way it has to be.
Chris McAlilly 24:29
I think a lot of people... So I think about, you know, people who leave high school, go to college, are on a career path, on a journey. I don't know if either law or medicine or whatever the trajectory is, in a certain moment you realize the world as it is not the world that as it should be. I think a lot of people who are you know, 18 to 22 have moments where there's that kind of recognition. I think one of the challenging things when you see that... I mean, I love the way that you tell your story, because part of it is, "I saw a problem and I tried to solve it." And then there was demand and we tried to continue it. For someone who may be listening, who is, sees an opportunity like that, or sees a problem they want to solve, but also sees a lot of the barriers, kind of talk about that, the journey of the last, you know, 15, 18 years. What are some of the, I guess, the virtues or the mindsets or the skills or the habits of mind that have been important to you to sustain kind of the trajectory that you've been on? And what advice would you give somebody who maybe has a similar passion or hope?
Lowrey Crews 25:43
Wow. That's a good one. I think, number one is everything I've done, I've started because I was interested. I started playing sports because I was interested. And I became really passionate about it, so I played a lot of sports. And I started teaching because I was interested. Chance to make a difference? Okay. Yeah, that sounds good to me. I'm interested. But meeting my students, meeting their families, being in that environment, I was passionate about it. And so I just wanted to keep teaching. And I had opportunities to be in school leadership, and I wasn't passionate about that. I was interested in it, so I did it. But I actually went back into the classroom when I started 18th Ward and taught fourth grade math, because I was passionate about teaching. And I love that more than all the things that came with being an administrator. And so I think passion, number one. If you're, you know, your question is if you're, 15, 18, 20, you know, find something, find several things you're interested in, stick with the one that you're passionate about, because too many bumps in the road, too many obstacles to overcome, too many moments where you might want to hit my head up against the wall because it's frustrating. But the passion just kind of helped me push through all of that and realize, I'm not just doing something for a job. I'm doing something that I deeply care about. So I think that's the first thing. I think the second thing is probably just this lens of of equity. I just don't think that I deserve more than someone else because of the color of my skin. I don't think my boys deserve something because of, you know, their white privilege. And so I think as I go out in the world, I just think, well, if I can do this... If my kids can go to great summer camps, which are real expensive, why can't all kids go to summer camps? My kids are having a blast this summer. But they're going places that are unaffordable to most people. And most of them have black and brown skin, because of the, you know, economic inequity that's persisted, the systems of oppression that have created the world that we live in. And so I think, somewhere between passion and equity would be my answer to figuring out what you're passionate about, and then exploring this idea of equity.
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Eddie Rester 28:23
So, as you think about your passion for teaching and sports and the desire, also your passion for equity, what are some moments that you can point to that say, "What we're doing through the 18th Ward is having an impact. These are the moments that are worth celebrating". Because it'd be real easy just to celebrate, oh, we got 4,000 kids, we got 6,000 kids. We really need to celebrate that. And that is something to be celebrated. But what are the stories that you tell when you want people to know, this is what is really happening? This is where we're really getting to what our passions are about.
Lowrey Crews 29:05
Yeah, I'm, I'm not ready to celebrate anything. I think we're scratching the surface of what's possible, and also what's needed as a... I'm deep into the research and the data. And one of the things I've seen recently and been attracted to is this idea that in a community, if at least 63% of folks, kids are physically active, that's when the dramatic economic and health benefits start to kick in for that entire community. And so as I run the numbers in New Orleans, you know, 80,000 kids under 18, and I was trying to figure out which programs were offered and who was participating. I couldn't come up with a fourth of that 80,000 that were physically active, and all the health and economic benefits that are related to that. And so I think when we look around 63%, you know, that means that we're doing some good work with 4,000 kids, hopefully 6,000 kids, 10,000 over the next few years, but really, we need to be talking about numbers like 50,000, like 60,000. Systemic change at the youth level that creates systemic change at the community level. So I think, you know, that's a number that I'll celebrate when we've made lasting change. Because I think oftentimes what's celebrated is this single story of a kid who made it out of the neighborhood, or a kid who got a scholarship. I think, oh, a kid from a predominately Black school, primary low income neighborhood got millions of dollars in scholarships, but I'm thinking he or she was probably in a graduating class of hundreds. And so what's happening to everyone else? And so I think that, you know, I never wanted to really celebrate the victories along the way. I think it was hard for me because I always see, you know, the larger picture, which is pretty daunting. I mean, I think my best friend growing up lived less than a mile from me in Tupelo, Mississippi, but a far different set of circumstances. His father had passed away. His mother didn't have a job. And my parents were, you know... We became best friends in first grade through school. And then we started playing soccer together. He had never seen or touched a soccer ball, but played soccer together all the way through high school. My parents paid for him to play travel soccer with us growing up, took him to all the tournaments, paid for all the hotels, and, you know, it was one of those moments where I realized, like, that was life changing. I mean, to this day, he's one of my best friends. And he's doing great, and he's got a family, and he lives in Atlanta, and he's got a great job and, and I wish he could come to New Orleans, and we could, you know, get back to where we started. But that's just one person. And everyone who lived on his block, everyone else we went to school with... There was a reunion in New Orleans from some of our high school football teammates a couple years ago, and I loved hearing where everyone has been, since we all graduated high school. But shouldn't have been surprised, but was, by the incarceration rates of my teammates, great human beings who were great football players, who were just dealt a different hand and forced them into situations that they didn't want to be in. But there weren't other ways out. And I think, you know, those stories, those relationships, they stick with me, and I can't forget them. But I don't want to... I don't want the one student who I taught and got
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a scholarship to play football to be... You know. It's not a crowning achievement. Because a lot of kids that I taught who really struggled to learn, who really struggled to graduate, who really struggled to be part of the workforce and to raise their own families... So yeah, I'm not much of a in a celebratory state of mind.
Chris McAlilly 33:33
So I wonder, you know, so I want to ask... I guess I think about the person who may be in the nonprofit sector, who has an idea or dream, who's thinking about making that happen, and thinking about kind of the nuts and bolts of what it means to be in nonprofit leadership, or thinking about taking an idea and making it scalable, or making it viable. So talk, maybe talk through a little bit of the mechanics or the nuts and bolts of the last five years from a scalability and viability standpoint for your organization.
Lowrey Crews 34:12
Yeah, I don't want to crush anyone's dreams, because because I'm living in one. And I hope that other folks are, too. But it's hard. I mean, we scrape by. What gets us by are partnerships and relationships. I mean, that's at the core. So if we need more space for more kids, we've got to work with the city government. They own the land. We've got to work with schools. It's their property that we're playing on and sometimes paying to play on just so our kids have those opportunities. So there's nothing glamorous about it. But because it takes some unique partnerships and a lot of relationship building, so I'll just say that's the best place to start, not with... I didn't have a shiny business plan. I did not go to business school. I'm still learning the ins and outs of that part of the job. But I have built a lot of relationships. And so when I need folks to volunteer, or when I need additional resources, folks I've called up have sort of answered that. I think folks in Tupelo are the reason that we have scaled to the degree that we have. Our seed funding came from North Mississippi. It came from the generosity of people who had seen me grow up here who, you know, maybe I'd played sports with their kids or grandkids. And so that was a lifeline. I mean, we wouldn't be where we are today if some folks hadn't said, "I believe in this idea, mission, and the person leading it." And so I feel really lucky. So there's a lot of luck, a lot of relationship building. And New Orleans, you know, I'm not sure if this is unique to our city, but I think we're oversaturated with nonprofits. I don't think nonprofits are necessarily the answer. It was just one answer in a whole string of unanswered questions in our city. So the right time, the right place. But it is... If someone asks, "Should I do this?" I'd be reluctant to say yes, because I know how difficult it is.
Eddie Rester 36:33
Was there someone who mentored you in just how do you scale? Was there someone who really spoke into you in here's how you pursue this in a way that makes it sustainable across years? Because most nonprofits, if you really dig into nonprofits, most nonprofits fail in two to three years. You've crossed that barrier now. So who was it along the way that really helped you sustain the vision and manage that vision?
Lowrey Crews 37:04
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Well, so many people. Maybe sometimes too many mentors. But I'd say, you know, I'd say it started with some of my coaches, because I think growing up playing sports was one... We went through some stuff. There were some challenges, not just in terms of competition, but just, man, it's hot, and we're doing two-a-days in August, like, this is not fun. But, you know, the belief that we were a part of a team and a part of something bigger. I think that. Just my coaches have been mentors. So I'd list all of them. In terms of the business side, the finance side, folks who I went to college with. I mean, they... When I went to school, there was a level of wealth that I had never experienced before. And so I'm looking to people who have money to help me figure out how to raise money, because I just didn't know the depths of people's income, but also their generosity. And so there was a friend of mine, whose family owns a hotel in New Orleans, and I called him up, and we talked for hours. And we hadn't talked since I graduated college and had been teacher. And he really motivated me to say like, "My family owns this business here. But the outlook for our city is not great." And, you know, so there was a lot of encouragement, more so than... You know, the mentors who gave me a spreadsheet or told me I needed a pro forma, gave me that sort of generic advice, that wasn't the mentorship that stuck. It was the people who just had belief and said words of encouragement. "Go for this. And here's one thing I can give you and here's a few things you need to go and figure out for yourself." And so I credit friends from college, and families from from Tupelo growing up, local business owners who'd grown their family businesses in a way that I wanted to see our nonprofit grow, and so too many to name. But yeah, I got a full masterclass in nonprofit leadership and management from a bunch of great people.
Chris McAlilly 39:41
I do think one of the things that I hear in that is that if you are exploring ideas or if you're trying to figure out how to figure something out, leaning on the network of people that are in your life and just kind of thinking through okay, who are the people that are there that I already have access to, that I can just go have a conversation with. I think one of the things that I've realized in some ways through the podcast, Eddie is just how accessible people are. I mean, more so than you would think. People are willing, if you come in good faith and with good spirit, and, you know, with a desire to learn, most everybody that we've reached out to, with the exception of one or two individuals like Taylor Swift, and others, have said yes to being on the podcast. But you know, Eddie's failed a couple times with some big names.
Eddie Rester 40:32
I got probably the kindest rejection email from Francis Collins. He took the time to craft a really
kind, "I'm not gonna be on your podcast" email. I printed it. And I framed it. It was real nice.
Chris McAlilly 40:47
But seriously, I think that people are more accessible than you think. And people are more
willing to help than you would think.
Eddie Rester 40:54
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Particularly, I would imagine, if you go in, "I'm trying to build a thing that impacts families, kids and communities. Not so we're sending kids out of the community. But so we create a community where the kids stay, or the kids returned to their community, or people want to invest in their communities in a different way." That's a conversation that I found most people want to have. They want to have those conversations. I'm in Jackson, Mississippi, which has all sorts of issues, all sorts of issues that we deal with. But what I found is that whether it's businessmen or people in the nonprofit sector, or people in government, they're willing to have conversations with absolutely anybody who has ideas and passion for their city.
Lowrey Crews 41:48
You're absolutely right. I mean, advice is free. And there's a lot of people that I had to learn from. In fact, I created a list of leaders, I called them "Leaders to Learn From," before I decided even apply for nonprofit status: folks who had been successful in schools, school board, superintendent, principals, teachers, folks who've been successful in businesses, and just made a list and asked them all if I could buy them a cup of coffee, and just take notes and soak up the knowledge and skills. And so yeah, it's been a true, true teamwork exercise to get us to where we are now.
Chris McAlilly 42:31
I think the other thing that comes to mind as we're talking about this is that we're living in a cultural environment where there are just a ton of cultural forces that are pulling folks together- -pulling folks a park--pulling folks apart. It's a very polarized moment. And I think one of the things that doesn't get celebrated enough or lifted up enough are a whole host of things, including I think that the 18th Ward is a part of it, is an effort to try to pull the community together in a different kind of way. And I think there is... I mean, I can see how you could you could get to a point--I know it's hard work and you're not where you want to be--you can start getting, you can start waxing poetic about how the vision of the kind of community that that you see... I don't know. I feel like sometimes, you know, you end up seeing what it is that you want to see. You know, there are plenty of plenty of places in the world that you can look to see division and strife. But I love what you're doing and how you're doing it because I think it already points to a different kind of world and one that I think is worth not only supporting but giving more attention to. What about you Eddie? Where do you... You know what I'm trying to say.
Eddie Rester 43:56
Yeah, I know what you're trying to sa. And I think people want to live in a world where people enjoy one another. But what I found particularly over the last 10 years is that what we took for granted we have to fight for it now. We have to create space where people can tell their stories, can listen to other people's stories, even if they don't like to listen to other people's stories, and can weave those stories together in a way that's new and different. And, you know, the old models of "You go do yours. I'm going to pursue mine" doesn't work. And I think sports are grand way to bring mamas together and daddies together and teenagers together and children together so they build a shared memory.
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Chris McAlilly 44:54
Yeah. And I think, I guess one of the things I'm thinking about in this is that if you bring people together for the purpose just having a conversation across the difference, people are not going to have a conversation across difference. Or, you know, you're going to hear my story. I'm gonna hear yours. You're going to sit in a room together.
Eddie Rester 45:08 And go home.
Chris McAlilly 45:08
You know, people don't do that. But there's something about play, just the human... It's deeply human. It's very childlike. We never get over the desire to do it. And there is something that is created, this chemical process that happens between two people when they're playing together without expectations, and in a fun environment that does, it literally does build community. And I think that's worth thinking about. Like, what are the ways? How do you create more places where people can play together, you know, across difference?
Lowrey Crews 45:44
It's certainly affordable. It's a model that can be replicated. And I get asked that. You know, would the 18th Ward be replicated in another city? And it can. But what's at the core of it is so special to us that I would worry, that it would just become another youth sports organization that's, you know, trying to win a championship. And then there's a lot. It takes away from all the positive things that we see. My staff is very good at what they do there. They all played sports, in some way, shape, or form. And I have to remind them often, kids, families, they come for the sports, but they stay for the community. So as much as you want this child to be a great flag football player, that's not really why they're here. And so a lot of our time is not spent X's and O's of flag football, it's relationships with the kids who step onto the field, with their families were sitting in the chairs or on the blankets, watching. And that's why people are going to come back. That's why the community will change. It has the potential to see a generational impact. And there's evidence of that throughout my journey. And so just hoping, you know, my staff are young and eager, but hoping they stick with it long enough to see the fruits of their labor, to see that change happen over time.
Chris McAlilly 47:18
So one of the things... Go ahead, Eddie.
Eddie Rester 47:21
I was just going to say, so if someone wants to support you...
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Chris McAlilly 47:24
That's exactly what I was going to say.
Eddie Rester 47:24
What is the best way? I know you've got the website, it's the18thward. It's T-H-E, one, eight, T-
H, ward.org, the18thward. How can they support come alongside you?
Lowrey Crews 47:37
Well, in a lot of different ways. I mean, I think we try to create variety for folks, whether they're playing or donating. And so there's, you know, there's a couple of different ways. We have a monthly donor plan, where a small amount goes a long way. And one thing that I've learned about creating an annual budget is that that guaranteed revenue allows us to continue chasing our dreams and grow in a responsible way, so that we don't have to offer something and then cut it back one year or hire someone who started working with us as a teenager, that graduated college, hire them full time and then have to remove that position because we didn't responsibly raise money. So our monthly donors. There's a link on our website for monthly donors. We've got a group called The Club, which is sort of modeled after like a booster club. They're really deep into it fans who want to see their teams be successful. And The Club has a multi-year gift of a minimum amount and just saying, you know, "For the next three years, I'm letting you know that we're here in the stands. We're cheering from the sidelines. And we want to make change possible." So there's a multi year campaign called The Club. There's one time donations through the website. There are sponsorships for businesses. You know, put logos across the chest or the sleeve of jerseys and let folks know that this business doesn't just exist in the for-profit world but they want to be a part of a better community as well. So there's a lot of different ways. We take volunteers, if folks want to come down to New Orleans and help volunteer. It's not glamorous, and I hate to break it to folks, but they probably won't be volunteer coaching. I grew up with a lot of volunteer coaches, but that's not part of our model. We let our young people lead. So a five-year-old is coached by a 15-year-old, not a 40-, 50- year-old. It takes away... But parents are typically relieved that they can sit on a picnic blanket and have conversations and coffee with their friends and meet new people and not have the pressure of helping their kids and others be successful. So our volunteer work is more in a hot warehouse without air conditioning and unpacking shirts and sizing up jerseys. And so we do accept volunteers. But we are actually a paid, staff-driven organization.
Chris McAlilly 50:18
So, you know, I think one of the things that's cool about Mississippi is that we outsource a bunch of our talent. But I think that's a great thing. Because I think there are people from Mississippi that make an impact all over the country and all over the world. You're doing that in New Orleans. It's so great to see you again, man. Great to reconnect with you. I am so just excited about what you're doing. And it's so awesome to see kind of how your journey has come together in this way. And my hope would be that folks from North Mississippi and really just across Mississippi that are looking for a way to invest or to make an impact and a
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difference would seek out Lowrey and seek out the 18th Ward and just come and be a part of it. And then also, maybe there's a college student out there, maybe a young adult that really wants to try to figure out how do I make a difference in Mississippi, in Jackson, or in the Delta, or in a community that they care about, but they don't know what it would look like to make a difference. Go down to New Orleans. Check it out. Spend a couple days or a couple of weeks with Lowrey. And check out the model. Just go take a look and then bring it back to Mississippi. And let's keep this. Let's let's scale the thing, not just in New Orleans, but maybe sprinkle some of the love back home.
Lowrey Crews 51:39 Plenty of love to go around.
Chris McAlilly 51:40 No doubt.
Lowrey Crews 51:41
Thanks for having me. Pleasure to reconnect and to be part of this conversation. And I appreciate that y'all are providing this as an ongoing opportunity for folks who want to share their passions and interests and just talk about things that we can all agree on, which is you know, better community, better world, better city for our kids and families.
Eddie Rester 52:06
[OUTRO] Thanks for listening. If you've enjoyed the podcast, the best way to help us is to like,
subscribe, or leave a review.
Chris McAlilly 52:15
If you would like to support this work financially or if you have an idea for a future guest you can go to theweightpodcast.com. [END OUTRO]