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thePeorian.com
“I was stunned. I didn’t think
I was qualified. But I took the job
because I felt I could do more for
kids from the inside than from
the outside,” he said.
Others around the area began
taking notice of Cannon’s work
with youth and about six years
ago, when the city was going
through a crime surge involving
high school-aged youth he was
asked by Mayor Jim Ardis to
serve on a special task force look-
ing at ways to reverse the trend.
He was on a panel that met with
the public in late 2006, a panel
that included Peoria’s leading
police officials, prosecutors and
civic leaders.
“I’ll tell you, I was on an ego
trip before that night. But by the
time that event was over, when
the public asked us questions and
we had no answers, I was on a
guilt trip. It was that same night
ELITE was born,” he said.
“I sat in my car in the parking
lot after that event and really felt
guilty. I started thinking about
what we could do, what we had
to do really, to help these kids,”
he said. “I realized kids are argu-
ably the safest when they are at
home or at school, so it needed to
start at those places. We needed
to get them jobs and get them off
the streets and out of the alleys
at night. We needed to change
perceptions of what was cool for
these kids and teach them that
respect is a two-way street.”
ELITE stands for Economic
Leaders Integrating Trained
Employable youth, but the acro-
nym isn’t used much these days.
Rather just the word is used to
symbolize that the kids who go
through the program are “a cut
above the rest.”
The purpose, to have local busi-
ness and civic leaders help train
the students, has not been short-
ened or changed, Cannon said.
The idea for ELITE in hand,
Cannon approached then-District
150 Superintendent Ken Hinton
and Mayor Ardis and shared his
thoughts to start a 10-week pro-
gram for sophomores and juniors
in inner-city high schools. Those
thoughts included that there
needed to be time set aside dur-
ing school hours for the program
or it wouldn’t have the same
meaning. He promised if any of
the kids had attendance problems
or their grades worsened, they’d
be out of the program.
In February 2007, ELITE was
launched at Central, Manual and
Woodruff High Schools. The first
things Cannon told the students
was that they were cowards un-
less they pulled their pants up
to their natural waist, learned to
regularly use words and phrases
like “please” and “thank you” or
showed spirit by smiling. “I said
if they couldn’t do those things,
they should go ahead and leave.
But if they stayed those were just
some of what I’d expect from
them.”
All stayed that day, 90 kids
total from the three schools, kids
recommended for the program by
school counselors. They weren’t
the top 10 percent or bottom 10
percent in the school, but kids in
the middle who could aspire to
the top or become role models for
those on the bottom. By the first
graduation of the ELITE program
in May 2007, 58 kids were still in
the program. “I fired 32 of them
because they didn’t want to stick
to the rules. I told them they
could come back the next year,
but that the rules were going to
be the same,” he said.
The ELITE program has
expanded to include five high
schools, including Richwoods,
Dunlap and Limestone. There is
now a kindergarten through 8th-
grade program at Trewyn School,
which started last fall. “There are
now more kids in ELITE pro-
grams than in Key Clubs and in
some sports programs,” he said.
“The bridge to the future is the
classroom.”
That expansion came about
because of another guilt trip Can-
non took after that first ELITE
graduation. “I saw all that hope
and realized the need for the
program shouldn’t be limited to
inner-city schools. What we teach
these kids are things that are
important no matter where they
live or go to school.”
The kids know Cannon as
“Corrections Officer” and in the
first four weeks learn what is
known as the program’s anthem:
It’s a list of phrases for success
and they must recite it when Can-
non walks into a room and says
“communicate.”
Continued on page 20
Nominees
Carl Cannon discusses program scheduling with staff members Heidi Lynch, left,
and Alex Reynolds at Youth Outreach & Intervention offices at the RiverPlex.