Jay Martin

Jay Martin’s talent for looking beyond the obvious and seeing the possible has enabled him to lead the company he founded, National Safety Associates, to remarkable success for more than three decades.

Several years ago, Martin brought his knack for finding fresh solutions to a project that gives thousands of inner-city kids in Memphis the chance for a better tomorrow.

“I’ve believed for a long time that Memphis doesn’t have enough targeted, high-quality vocational training that leads directly to jobs,” Martin said. “We have too many young people unemployed or underemployed. Our community is divided between the haves and the have-nots, and the one thing that can turn that around is jobs.”

Martin envisioned a multi-year job training program that inner-city youth would begin in their teens, learning such “soft” skills as punctuality and teamwork, then mastering specific skills in demand in the Memphis job market. “I wanted to see a program so strong that Memphis employers would view getting one of our graduates as the equivalent of someone from the Ivy League,” he said.

He approached the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Memphis with his idea. The result is the Boys and Girls Club’s new Technical Training Center, which opened at 903 Walker in 2006. The Center -- funded through the Jay Martin Foundation, Inc., at the Community Foundation -- currently offers training in two fields: culinary arts and logistics.

“Those young men and women will be able to earn a good salary, buy a decent house, and become good citizens,” Martin said. “And they will become role models for the next generation of inner-city kids who can see a path for their own success.”  

Martin said he is “usually hands-off” when it comes to active participation in community projects, supporting organizations he believes in through a donor-advised family fund at the Community Foundation. But he got his heart, then his pocketbook, and finally himself fully involved in the Technical Training Center. He personally funded the $2 million conversion of an existing Boys and Girls Club property into a facility with training bays and classrooms, then helped recruit businesses to support the program with input, mentoring and, eventually, job interviews for program graduates.

“We’ve had a great response from the business community,” Martin said. “There are a lot of generous, concerned people in this town, but they don’t want to just throw money at a problem and not get something in return. They want something that works. This program is going to deliver.”