Today we’d like to introduce you to Armand King.
Armand, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I was raised with my older sister a cousin who was the same age as me. As a child grew up under an abusive father and an extremely rocky household until I was about 11 years old when my parents finally divorced. At 12 years old, my family lost everything and we had become homeless for the next two years. We never had to sleep on the street but would bounce to different friends houses that would put up with us for a while. During this time I had lost my first close friend to homicide at 13. My middle school years I was becoming involved in gangs and started selling weed. Eventually, I was kicked out of middle school for fighting. I stayed out of school until my family got back on our feet and moved into an apartment in Lemon Grove.
I began Helix High in the 9th grade where I met my new best friend Roy who talked me out of being in gangs and instead into being a ladies man. In 9th grade, we formed a party clique like many young men and women during that time in San Diego history. We unconsciously were breaking away from the traditional gangs of SD. This time period I refer to as the Clique era. A time where guys from the hood dressed in preppy ivy league clothes and later into the emerging urban hip hop brands. A time when we would start “Juicing” girls for their money. Which meant that they had to buy us things to be around us. Food, clothes, and anything else of value. At 16 years old, one of my best friends and clique mates Lawrence Smith was murdered at 16 years old.
By 16 years old, I had moved out of the house and began living at different friends houses, eventually getting my own apartment in the 11th grade. Around 1998-99 the new emerging epidemic of pimping and prostitution took over my clique and an extremely large percentage of my peer group. Being a Pimp or a Prostitute had become the new cool thing and my friends and I quickly merged into a lifestyle of pimping. After graduating I found myself in a really bad position in life and was scared that I was going to die or go to jail. At that moment I decided to join the air force. My time in didn’t last too long because my mind was still heavily wrapped into street life.
After being stationed in Florida, I came up with a scheme to make a lot of money bringing Marijuana out there and selling it for nearly four times what I was getting it for in SD. I was able to get out of the military and start this money making process. I made nearly a quarter of a million dollars before I was busted and sentenced to three years in the Feds. During that time I was incarcerated in several different institutions just throughout my extradition process. This being my first offense it was an extreme culture shock. Two months before I was released another one of my best friends/brothers was murdered by four young kids who were on a shooting spree. This event began to change the course of my life.
When I was released, I was starting to act better but still had one foot in the streets and one foot out for many years. I would work jobs and still hustle illegally here and there. What finally made me stop was when it was brought to my attention that there was a large group of SD youth that had been looking up to me and my clique. They had been the youngsters in the neighborhood that were watching us and patterning their life after us. There turned out to be over one hundred of these youth that had carried on my clique and were almost exact duplicates of us. When I look at these kids in the eyes, I could see the faces of all of my friends whose lives were taken by bullets and prison cells. Friends that I could never speak to again. Something had to change this cycle of death and incarceration.
There birthed the organization Paving Great Futures. An organization that I feel was needed when I was a kid but was missing. An organization that could reach me where I was and not expected to search out on my own with no guidance or direction. Along with myself and two friends Barry Harris Jr. and Jay Bowser we came together and designed an organization that would not be the average. 2012 we launched and have been continuously building and saving lives along the way. Our nonprofit has several programs that all infuse the six core competencies that makeup Paving Great Futures; Entrepreneurship, Job Skills, Civic Engagement, Community Service, Responsible Life Skills, and Financial Literacy.
Everything has been going great in my life until mid-2017 when two more of my original clique mates died. William to an overdose and Kenneth to murder. I have used that pain to act as energy to save as many youngsters as I can and I am happy with the work that God has blessed me to do. I have become the happiest and the loneliest Ive ever been in my life.
Has it been a smooth road?
The pain of losing almost all of the people that meant the most to me.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Paving Great Futures – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
Paving Great Futures is the nonprofit organization that I co-founded with two childhood friends.
I work as a gang and domestic human sex trafficking consultant.
I do public speaking and training on domestic human sex trafficking and urban street life.
Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
I like that you can pretty much be in any type of environment that you choose. SD is super diverse. The weather and women are also wonderful.
I don’t like the cost of living at all. Although I understand it.
Contact Info:
- Address: 2307 Fenton Prkwy #107-8
- Website: armandking.com , pavinggreatfutures.org
- Phone: 6192883187
- Email: mr.armandking@gmail.com
- Instagram: mr.armand_king
- Facebook: Armand King
- Twitter: @MrArmandKing
- Other: LinkedIn Armand King
Getting in touch: SDVoyager is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
