MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Every Tuesday as part of our Greater Memphis on a Mission series, we highlight organizations making Memphis better. This week, we caught up with a group that believes in using the game of chess to help illustrate life lessons.
G.A.M.E. Changers Movement is a nonprofit organization that works to empower young high school gentlemen to be the change they want to see in their homes, schools, and communities.
“In the game of chess, you don’t want to leave yourself open. I think that can correlate to real life,” said Jeremiah Price, a G.A.M.E. Changers mentee. “If you move without even thinking, you don’t know what could happen. But if you plan your next move, you have a better range of what might happen.”
Jeremiah sat next to his mentor, Amhamd Benney who is an alum of the program and is currently working on his master’s degree in accounting.
“Understanding what it means to know that you have people who depend on you and knowing that you have people to depend on was very big for me,” said Benney.
G.A.M.E. Changers Movement helps foster a sense of purpose, social responsibility, and critical thinking through mentorship and learning how to play the game of chess.
“I love playing the game of chess. I knew that it teaches kids to think critically, to be patient, think before they move,” said Vincent Spriggs II, founder and executive director.
They have four programs that they offer. The “Mentor Me” program develops an individual mentorship plan.
Next, you have “Each One, Teach One.”
“Each young man is given an opportunity to be a mentor, role model to a younger kid,” said Spriggs.
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They also have the “We Making Moves” program.
“We teach financial literacy and also the game of chess through chess events,” he said.
And finally, they have the “We All We Got, We All We Need” program.
“That’s about teaching young men to take personal responsibility for their communities. We go about that by looking for where the need is in the community,” Spriggs said.
The need for that day was at the Black Seeds Urban Farm. The young men dug in to help them prepare their garden flowers, lay out mulch, and talked about the importance of urban gardens in neighborhoods.
That is why Brown Missionary Baptist Church and the Mid-South Genesis CDC donated $1,000 to G.A.M.E. Changers Movement. Because when you combine gospel, activism, mentoring, and education, you’re setting the young men up for lifelong success.
