From my earliest beginnings, living in government housing (the projects), I should have been the kid your mother warned you to stay away from.  I was.  The fact is that I did a lot of things that should have had consequences, but I was lucky enough to not pay.  I should have ended up in jail or dead, but I was blessed enough that I didn’t.

Instead, I ended up in a twenty-four year career in public service.  As a police officer, I’ve spent a great deal of time working with youth in an effort to give them some of the luck I had as a child.  I’ve mentored troubled youth struggling to fit into a world they don’t understand.  I’ve worked with youth in churches as a youth teacher.  I’ve cried and prayed with youth who finally “got it” and made a decision to change the destructive behaviors that continually put them back at square one.  In short, I get it.  I also get how high the stakes are.

I am solely committed to the belief that we lose far too many youth to destructive lifestyles.  All of the bad influences that hover around kids these days; drugs, sex, and violence only begin to describe what they face.  The good news is that there is hope.

When you hire me to speak to your youth, you’re hiring more than a person with a microphone who is trying to convince you they have all the answers.  I have answers, but not the “cookie cutter”, “it will all be ok” speeches you’ve heard before.   The message I give to youth is truth based in no small part, on the life lessons I have learned in my own life.  The message that success takes hard work, not just desire.  The cookie cutter message says that, “it doesn’t matter what the world thinks of you, only what you think of yourself.”  My message says that while your self-image is crucial, the person others see will make or break your chances at true success.  It is a total package. 

The bottom line is that I believe.  I believe in making a plan.  I believe in doing the work.  Finally, I believe in our youth and their ability to create a reality for themselves that they can’t even imagine now.  If you believe also, take this opporitunity to contact me now.