About DON’T START

Today, our youth face more pitfalls than ever. Gangs, drug abuse, bullying, vaping, suicide and other potential dangers are more prevalent than in the past. Street drugs contaminated with fentanyl products have led to more overdose deaths in the last few years, affecting all socioeconomic groups. Much of today’s popular hip-hop music glorifies gang violence and drug use. Hip-hop is the most popular form of music with our youth, not only in urban settings but also in the suburbs. Economic factors, along with the challenges mentioned above, contribute to instability in a young person’s life. This may lead to poor decision making and destructive behaviors, with gang violence increasingly involving juveniles. The chance of rehabilitation is more difficult the further they progress down that path.

Carl Cannon, founder of the ELITE Youth Outreach program, developed an idea called DON’T START. His concept was designed to reach youth before starting bad or destructive behaviors, and those dabbling in dangerous activities. He recognized the importance of getting parents and the community involved in the movement. But a state grant he received was canceled due to lack of funds. We took the initiative to promote Carl’s message of prevention, wrote a positive hip-hop song and made a music video called DON’T START.

There are also multiple private citizens with community mentoring programs. Antwaun Banks with Product of the Projects, Carl Holloway with May I Community Outreach and Robbie Criss with Sanction Community all lead effective programs teaching their mentees critical life and leadership skills. Willie Williams with Mentorship Skills Basketball League and Dee Mill with Team FOE/TTG provide our youth with expert coaching and basketball experience along with life and leadership training. 

The DON’T START initiative sponsored two major community events in the last two years. "DON’T START in the Park I" occurred in 2019 at Glen Oak Amphitheater and featured music with positive messages and inspirational speakers. "DON’T START in the Park II: United We Stand" happened in the fall of 2020. The DON’T START initiative and Peoria Police Department, along with the Peoria Public Schools District resource officers, sponsored this event at Carver Center. Teams of paired officers and community members, most of them teenagers, competed against each other in basketball activities. We received significant positive feedback from both groups and hope to repeat the activity on a larger scale in the future. Our goal was to improve police and community relations.

We strongly recommend that parents and grandparents review our DON’T START video with any youth at risk. We also suggest they encourage their youth to take full advantage of summer, after-school and community mentoring programs available in the area. DON’T START can be a unifying vehicle for linking these agencies and programs to strengthen the message of prevention to our youth. Our message is shared by every agency and community program with whom we have collaborated. Our youth need to hear positive messages from multiple sources over time to succeed in life. We have reached a national and worldwide audience through Facebook and Spotify.

We Want to Get Our Message in Every School in the Country

We invite organizations and individuals to partner with us to accomplish this goal.