Carl Cannon

Position: Founder, Chairman of Elite Youth Re-entry Program

School: Lincoln K-8 School

School District: Peoria School District

City, State: Peoria, Illinois

About the Nominee: UPDATE: December 1st, 2016Mr. Cannon is not employed at Lincoln K-8 School or Peoria School District. Although he is not eligible for the LifeChanger of the Year cash prizes, we recognize the outstanding work he has done through the ELITE Re-entry. We're leaving his profile up to honor his dedication and commitment to helping juvenile offenders become re-acquainted with school and avoid going back to prison.Carl Cannon was nominated by a family member, Edwards Williams.Mr. Cannon started his community outreach ten years ago, when he decided to create a jobs program to help keep young men and women from going back to prison. To date, the ELITE re-entry program has an amazing 80% success rate at keeping ex-offenders from going back to prison.However, even with the success Mr. Cannon and his ELITE program have experienced, he still has a burning desire to reach an even younger group. After working in prisons for the majority of his life, it became obvious as he looked around that the prison population was increasingly becoming younger and younger.This outlook led to the formation of the ELITE high school program, which quickly became a jobs program that teaches the soft skills needed for today's job market and encourages high school age youth to have respect for themselves and others. Mr. Cannon was not satisfied with the success of the re-entry and high school programs, so he created a program that is currently running full time in three of Peoria's middle schools. This program is specifically designed to support teachers and administrators of inner-city schools. The goal of the K-8 program is to slow and eliminate any behaviors that impede and disrupt the learning environment.

[nominee_videos nominee_email="ccannon@peioraparks.org"]