“Baby boy, if you don’t get it together, dishwashing is all you’re ever going to do.”
Amos Gray remembers that car ride home. He had just failed the seventh grade when his mother had taken him to Camp Aldersgate in Little Rock, Arkansas – not to swim or canoe, but to wash dishes where she worked.
Joann Tinsley intended to send her son a message with those stern yet loving words. She ended up launching a career path that changed his future and hundreds more.
“I was 13, and it radically changed my life,” Gray said about his experience at the camp serving youth with developmental disabilities. “There was a little boy named Jimmy there. I went out and played with him and have never looked back.”
Gray had an epiphany: He wanted to work with youth, specifically at-risk youth.
Four decades later, the ordained pastor is doing just that at High Impact Movement (H.I.M.), the nonprofit Gray and his wife, Carol, founded in 2018 in Hot Springs. Every day, H.I.M. is an activity hub for 120 kindergarteners through twelfth graders who receive tutoring and mentoring support, character development, leadership courses, workforce readiness training and more.
“We have so many things going on for young people,” said Gray.
Regions Bank and Karen Kitchens, Commercial Banking Leader and market executive for Hot Springs, are 100% on board. In 2022, the bank donated $1,000 to support the nonprofit’s programs. Kitchens, along with Consumer associates Erin Hampton and Catherine Monroe, have also taught Regions’ Next Step financial education courses to high schoolers served by H.I.M. for the past two years. Kitchens met Gray through Rotary, where she quickly discovered his persuasive ability with recruiting local leaders to volunteer.
One of the things Amos excels at is sharing the message of, ‘These are not just my kids, they are the community’s kids. I can’t be in it alone.’ Karen Kitchens, Regions market executive for Hot Springs
“One of the things Amos excels at is sharing the message of, ‘These are not just my kids, they are the community’s kids. I can’t be in it alone,’” Kitchens said. “His approach is, ‘We’re doing this together.’”
That spirit of togetherness is vital to a specific aspect of Gray’s work with H.I.M. participants.
“We have what I call ‘the four E’s: engage, equip, empower and expose,” Gray explains. “The biggest one is exposing students to people, places and things they wouldn’t normally be exposed to. Karen is one of those people.”
And those exposure experiences often create aha moments.
“When we expose our students to different avenues of business, they think, ‘I could do that,’” Gray said. “If you give a kid a vision and paint a picture for them, they can achieve it.”
H.I.M. participants are achieving improved academic performance thanks to the nonprofit’s tutoring focus, too.
We were struggling with our academics in Hot Springs; but today, 73% of our students have either improved their grades or they’ve stayed the same. Amos Gray
“We were struggling with our academics in Hot Springs; but today, 73% of our students have either improved their grades or they’ve stayed the same,” Gray said.
H.I.M.’s message of empowerment and confidence is one Gray feels particularly led to deliver himself.
“When I grew up, I got picked on a lot,” recalled Gray. “I always had this unconscious thought in my head that I’m not good enough. Through the process of developing this organization and having good people in my life, I’ve learned that I am good enough. I am capable of leading a group of people with a vision that is so much bigger than just us.”
Among those he leads are his three adult children, all part of the H.I.M. staff.
“I can’t say enough about my kids,” Gray said. “They’ve had to share their dad with thousands of kids over the last 32 years, and they’ve done it willingly. They’ve said, ‘That’s my dad, I’ve learned from him, and I want you to learn from him, too.’”
Meaning they also are learning from the lessons passed on by Gray’s mom all those years ago.
“I always see myself washing those dishes,” he said. “If not that for that moment … that was a defining moment for me. Before she passed, my mom told me two things: ‘Boy, I love you, and I’m proud of you.’ She made it a point to say that to me. Today, I think she’d be walking on air at what I’ve achieved.”
How high has H.I.M’s impact been for Hot Springs youth and their families?
“High Impact has helped me to love myself and to never give up.”
–Reniyah, third grade
“High Impact has helped me to get smarter and better as a person by encouraging us to do study time each day.”
–Jakaya, fifth grade
“My grades have improved and so has my behavior at school and with my mom. It has helped me want to be a leader.”
–Jalierra, ninth grade
“High Impact has given my family a safe place for my boys to be with a positive male role.”
–Mother of a second- and third-grade boy