Today we’d like to introduce you to Natalie McKinney.
Thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I believe the best way to start is sort of in the middle. After graduating from high school in Oakland, California, I attended and received a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Spelman College. After graduating, I earned a Juris Doctor from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, and a Master of Public Affairs from the School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.
Before I arrived in Memphis in 2005, I founded and served as the inaugural director of the Juvenile Law Clinic at North Carolina Central University School of Law, providing a holistic approach to representing youth accused of delinquent behavior and expelled from school. This work was recognized by the American Bar Association Juvenile Justice Section as a “best practice” in North Carolina. During my tenure at NCCU School of Law, I helped start the Street Law class and served as an adjunct professor and coordinator of the pro bono program.
My time in North Carolina also included serving as a juvenile law research associate at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Institute of Government. At the beginning of my career, I served as an associate attorney at Moore & Van Allen, PLLC, in Durham, North Carolina, and Alston & Bird in Atlanta, Georgia. I’m currently the co-founder and executive director of Whole Child Strategies. Immediately before WCS, I served as the Director of Policy for both Shelby County Schools and legacy Memphis City Schools, which included policy development and legislative planning. A job I didn’t know existed, and yet seemed to be made just for me!
Marrying my legal and policy background is a match made in heaven. Never did I imagine this would put me in the middle of the largest school district merger in the history of public education in America, where I led the effort to revise and develop a school district policy manual to accommodate the resulting amalgamation of rural, suburban, and urban schools.
While working for the school district, I realized the best way to impact a student is to improve their environment outside the classroom. Any experienced teacher will attest that what happens outside of the classroom has a direct impact on what happens inside the classroom, especially when that classroom is located in a community disproportionately affected by poverty. Once I realized this, I knew I had to do this work, in this way.
Fortunately, in the midst of all this, I got married, and raised two incredible young men, Ayodele (recent magna cum laude graduate of Xavier University) and Chioke (honors sophomore at Howard University), with my best friend and life partner, Dr. Charles W. McKinney, Jr.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The truth… absolutely not! Black women are what I commonly refer to as the “low ones on the totem pole”. And please don’t be a smart and unafraid Black woman. As just that, I’ve been slapped by a teacher for respectfully voicing my opinion; told because of my age in the 8th grade (I was a year ahead), it would be “ok” if I did not take math and English classes at the high school like two of my white classmates; told by men that I’m “too independent”; and of course the traditional labels of “too aggressive”, “a bully”; etc.
However, in the words of Maya Angelou, “…And still I rise.” As a Black woman, born in the South, raised in the West, and living in the Mid-South, my lived and living experiences range from a feeling of belongingness to exasperating marginalization. Feelings of “belongingness” were deeply rooted in my solidly middle-class two-parent household, living in a well-kept home, in a safe neighborhood, with well-educated parents who had the same experience as; their parents. Making me a third-generation college graduate, needing nothing, dreaming big and seemingly having no barriers…except I did.
Stepping out of my “safe space” called home, into the depths of marginalization rooted in the legacy of institutional and structural racism always permeated my life – in community, family, and school. In my community, experiencing white flight. In my family, witnessing the disrespect sometimes endured by my well-educated elders by white people. In my school, despite my all too obvious socio-economic status and intellect, my parents were forced to advocate for enrollment in college preparatory classes with the high school counselor because…I. Was. Going. To. College.
Finally, in college, I found community. Attending an all-Black women’s college, was Shangri La! I was a part of a community that looked like me, and yet, we all came from different walks of life, with different experiences that did not divide us, but instead, served as a thread, binding us together, creating a beautiful and productive community. Upon graduating, I re-entered the marginalizing systems and structures, however, with an improved foundation, renewed strength, and driven purpose.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Whole Child Strategic, Inc. (WCS) is a Black-woman-founded and led, place-based Community-Led Efforts Intermediary that equips Black people to grow self-sustaining communities and families so youth will thrive. We support Black children, Black families, and Black neighborhoods in Memphis that are disproportionately affected by disinvestment and poverty.
The organization was conceived as a demonstration of the impact of government investment in neighborhoods and resident leadership, making our decision to focus deeply on two historically disinvested Black communities, Klondike and Smokey City. Our vision for Klondike and Smokey City is that community members/stakeholders are vocal and engaged in changing their social, economic, and political lives. This is our vision for every community in Memphis, but our current work is to engage, organize, mobilize, support, and equip community stakeholders to make positive change so that youth will thrive.
What is most distinct about our vision and mission is that we do not impose a set of outcomes on the neighborhoods in and with which we work beyond the identification of the predispositions toward social, economic, and political systems they will need to be successful. Because we are serious about our commitment to community leadership, we have worked with community stakeholders to identify the critical areas of need and the work to be done.
Founded in 2017, WCS is arguably the only nonprofit in Memphis that focuses deeply on out-of-school barriers to educational attainment by partnering with community stakeholders to directly address the root causes of these barriers in the streets, neighborhoods, and networks where they arise. Specifically, we partner with resident champions, neighborhood schools, respected community-based businesses and organizations, faith-based entities, local and state government agencies, as well as national educational non-profits to build capacity and relationships and invest directly in the community.
As a relatively new organization, we have invested in conditions and tools that allow the neighborhood to tackle these root causes – specifically, by supporting community cohesion and coordination of efforts through resident-led organizing and outreach – on-the-ground organizing; Neighborhood Council meetings; and Neighborhood Resident Champions. We also conduct intensive coordination across neighborhood schools to improve student attendance, access to behavior and mental health interventions, and academic achievement.
We’re proud to coordinate community-led solutions that unmute the voices of Smokey City and Klondike, reinforcing self-determination in our communities and addressing the root causes of the obstacles our children face inside and outside of the classroom.
We’re supporting community-led solutions that assist families to escape food deserts (KSC Residents on the Move – MATA route designed specifically for KSC residents to access fresh food and basic needs), connecting residents and parents/guardians to full-time employment opportunities (permanent pathways to employment through a partnership with Memphis Medical District Collaborative Hire Local program), providing community grief counseling and making sure every voice in North Memphis is heard by city leaders (Klondike resident and myself appointed to Shelby County Commission Ad Hoc TIF [Tax Increment Funding] Committee to institute community engagement policies).
In essence, we are proud of the work moving our communities towards finding permanent and sustainable solutions to engage and remain vocal in their social, economic, and political lives, thus ensuring whole communities, whole families, and whole children.
What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
The current policies and practices of government agencies in Memphis and Shelby County are not informed by the lived experiences of their residents. Citizens need access to the government structures that have a direct impact on their experiences. Creating the infrastructure for residents to define the challenges facing them and offer solutions to those problems would reverse the pattern of elected officials informing residents about their choices and amplify the power of residents to set the agenda and direct public funds. Memphis and Shelby County can create a public-private agency to support existing and create new community infrastructure to inform the City Council and County Commission about community needs and help direct the flow of resources according to community priorities.
With this in mind, WCS work begins with people, in families and communities, who must drive the system’s transformation by engaging and being vocal in their social, political, and economic lives. Financial and social vulnerability take many forms within a community. From underfunded schools and resource instability to a lack of essential services. Our work won’t be done until we have equipped Klondike and Smokey City community stakeholders to identify and address the ROOT CAUSES hindering children from graduating on time, career, and/or college-ready, by defining and designing their economically self-sustaining and thriving community and families. The same holds in any other historically disinvested/under-resourced Black community.
The combination of poverty perpetuating policy. The disproportionate impact of COVID-19 and civil unrest due to unchecked police violence has revealed deep anger and despair among Black people across the United States. Shelby County, TN, with a majority Black population is particularly challenged to respond to deeply entrenched institutional racism. Memphis and Shelby County are well-positioned with majority Black governing bodies to respond in alignment with the demands of their fellow residents. Calls to redistribute resources away from law enforcement and into preventive and otherwise responsive services present an opportunity to embrace community engagement and not only change the trajectory of Klondike and Smokey City community stakeholders but ALL disproportionately under-resourced Black communities.
Given the recent election of a new city Mayor and his focus on stronger neighborhoods, and the County Commission’s hiring of District Connectors and focus on ensuring community engagement mechanisms are embedded in community development policies and processes impacting people and communities, I see a ripe opportunity for local policy and funding allocation transformation focused by and on people. I see an opportunity to explore guaranteed income, a local living wage, and thriving family program initiatives and policies emanating from coordinated neighborhood-level work.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.wcstrategies.org/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wholechildstrategies/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WholeChildStrategiesInc/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/whole-child-strategies-inc/about/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/WCStrategiesInc
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-lP6GJxg0Oy0Maydt4cYpQ
Image Credits
KQ Communications
