Save Our Streets: Former inmate helping Philly homeless in promise to 'never disappoint' mentor

PHILADELPHIA - "From Graterford to greatness…" that is how one South Philly man describes his new life. 

He is attributing his success to a mentor he met while behind bars, using what he taught him to help at-risk young people in a unique way.

"This is me. I am born and bred 7th Street. This is where I learned to be who I became. That sign right there. 7th and Mifflin. That represents it," said Ricky Duncan. 

Duncan has an enormous amount of pride when it comes to his South Philly neighborhood.

"People don't realize it's the love for the community. You had the community support. Everybody would wrap their arms around you," he said. I talked with him

He described that love from the steps of his childhood home on the 600 block of Mifflin Street near the corner of 7th Street.

"There was nowhere, no block you could go on that they didn't know who you were. All the families were families of each other," Duncan said.

But this same nurturing neighborhood eventually had him at a crossroads.

"Seventh Street was always known for the hustlers," he recalled.

Soon, that element of his environment took hold of him.

"7th Street guys always had the jewelry and we had the cars. But what came with it was what you did not want. This is where I sold my first drug, shot my first gun, things of that nature and that was like the ‘it’ thing to do. To be one of those guys. You wanted to be him," said Duncan. 

The choice he made quickly proved to be the wrong one.

"At the age of 17, I wound up finding myself in a state penitentiary with grown adults," he recalled. 

It started with stints in juvenile detention when Duncan was just a teen.

"My first time going to jail I was there from 17 to 24. Then it was in and out, a revolving door for maybe 20 to 25 years after that. About 26 years of in and out of incarceration," he said.

Then, a breakthrough happened after a judge sentenced Duncan to ten years.

"That's where one of my worst situations put me in my best place," he said.

It was during his last incarceration at the State Correctional Institution, known then as SCI Graterford, that Duncan met a man who would change his life.

"He had jewelry on, he had the rings on, he had the swag, he had his cool cap on, and he had a story to tell and instantly I can relate. His story was, ‘I come from the streets, but I overcame the streets. And I kept my personality, I kept who I was as a person, but I motivated and took it to another level,'" said Duncan about Dr. Tom Reid

Dr. Reid was one of the original founders of a program called Fathers and Children, which came to the prison to teach inmates like Duncan who were fathers.

"Not just a role model, playing a role model as a father, but really being that person that your child can look up to and how to reconnect," Duncan said about what he learned from Dr. Reid about fatherhood. 

Dr. Reid became Duncan’s mentor.

"Our relationship extended outside the doors once I was released," Duncan said. 

Dr. Reid hired him to work in his drug and alcohol treatment programs.

"When I stepped out the penitentiary, stepped out those doors, off those steps, he was right there for me and helped guide me along the way to a new way of life."

Later, Dr. Reid later turned a youth non-profit he had started known now as NOMO, New Options More Opportunities, over to Duncan.

Duncan says Dr. Reid saw his potential, believed in him and trusted him to rebuild the organization.

"Dr. Reid has been giving back for so many years and to so many people,"Duncan said. 

His mentor passed away last May, but Duncan is still carrying on his legacy.

"I always wanted to honor him some way."

Last year, Duncan opened the Tom Reid Village to help young people who are homeless; a problem he saw a lot while working with youth and restorative justice.

"Youth and homeless people don't really take it seriously because you see the person wash up every day or have nice clothes, but they really don't have anywhere to call home. The numbers never contribute to the people that are couch-surfing or people that are staying at their friends’ house," said Duncan. 

Tom Reid Village's concept is the type of holistic approach he believes his mentor would have eventually created himself.

"I thought there would be no other way but to name it the Tom Reid Village, because it takes a village to raise a kid, and Dr. Tom Reid raised a lot of people's kids."

Duncan credits his grandparents and uncle for raising him when his mother became addicted to drugs and his father was in prison.

Then, Dr. Tom Reid completed his village.

"I'm the biggest investment he ever made in his life. My promise is to never disappoint him. I will never take what he gave to me and let it die with me. I will continue to pass it down."

Duncan says Dr. Reid helped him see paths and possibilities beyond the dead-end that his South Philly neighborhood once offered.

"At the end of the day, this is not your career. This ain't gotta be your graveyard either. It is life past 7th Street."