PEORIA, Ill. – As the school year comes to a close, a Peoria non-profit group can breathe a little easier with the states proving its programs are working for at-risk students.
Elite Community Outreach was started back in 2006. Within the organization is the Elite Game Changer Safe School, where students meet with mentors to prevent them from not finishing school, among other things.
“[Those mentors are] called game changers. If we have returning citizens who can intercept kids who are going in the wrong direction, we can save lives. That’s what we’re doing. We’re saving lives,” Carl Cannon, the CEO and founder of Elite Community Outreach says.
Cannon tells 25 News, currently the safe school has 12 schools in the Peoria Public Schools district that feed into it. The school is designed for middle schoolers that are referred to the program by PPS.
The Elite Game Changer Safe School is located on the second floor of the Peoria Dream Center.
“Teachers would identify behaviors that are unacceptable in the school and in the classroom. The principal would refer them through the school administration, Miss Brooks, who would then refer them through my student affairs office, and then we do an intake,” Cannon says.
On average, Cannon says students come into the school with a 1.0 GPA and an average attendance rate of 40-percent. After the 12-week program, student success rates and GPAs are significantly higher.
“They go from 1.0 to a 2.5 or even higher. They go back with a 94-percent attendance rate from that 40-percent, and that disciplinary rate goes from that horrible or horrendous status to almost zero. In the last testing in the spring, our students went up across the board by 77-percent. That’s pretty phenomenal data considering the data they come to us with,” Cannon says.
However, some students aren’t quite as successful.
“We have students who don’t always have success, so they stay longer. Not all students go back at that quarter, and that’s the reality of the world we have with the students we work with, which is why we have game changers.” Cannon says.
It’s the game changers that can relate to these students and help lead them down a different path.
“Without this program, you would have more kids in the community who would have a background like I do, but by this program being here, it gives a kid a chance in life, as well as myself.” Fred Forest, an Elite Game Changer Supervisor says.
Things may have started off badly for these students, but because of the safe school, they’ve been able to turn their journey around for the better.
“I feel like this school is better than a normal school, to be honest. I didn’t think before I did something. Now I can think before I do, and of course, communicate, ‘Yes, ma’am. No, ma’am,’” 7th grader Fred Forest says.
“It definitely changed my attitude, and going to that last field trip, it changed my perspective on a lot of different things,” 8th grader Robert President says.
With the help of the Elite Game Changer Safe School, these students have a much brighter future.
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