Part of what makes University City a great place to live is the active involvement of our residents in the day-to-day life of our community. I've always believed that it's the people who you DON'T hear about day-to-day who are the real building blocks of the strong foundation of a community. In University City's Unsung Heroes I would like to highlight some of those people. I will add new Unsung Heroes as I meet them or become aware of them.

If you have someone you would like to nominate as one of our Unsung Heroes, let me know by e-mail us at ucitymo@gmail.com.
Mayor Shelley Welsch

In His Own Words: Sultan Ali Muhammad, Founder/CEO of Real Talk Inc.

As a former gang member ‘my transformation from the gang mentality’ started with being sick and tired of being sick and tired of losing so many of my childhood peers to senseless gang violence. So after my release from confinement after serving seven calendar years, on a 10 year sentence, I wasted no time leading the charge in the Greater Metropolitan Area of St. Louis creating innovative strategies and tactics to prevent young people from joining criminal street gangs based on what I coined “Gang Violence Prevention Education” or “The Been There, Done That Paradigm.”

My hard won experience taught me “an ounce of gang violence prevention education is worth more than a pound of intervention.” Eventually my gang violence prevention education campaign converted into Real Talk Inc. Comprehensive Gang Violence Prevention Education on Jan. 28.

My passion for creating Real Talk Inc. was generated from my desire to provide disenfranchised minority African-American males with the proper education and resources I and my childhood peers lacked growing up in our lower socio-economic status community or Hood.'

In the year of 2007 I produced an audio book called “Real Talk” to educate the general public on the psychological profile of the gang mentality. Little did I know the title of my audio book would become the actual name of the youth program I would become the founder/CEO of “Real Talk Inc.” I repetitiously reviewed the Fox 2 News interview Charles Jaco conducted with me on my audio book at least 25 times. I noticed how he classified my audio book as a “program”. Instantly a light bulb clicked on in my head; and the name of the gang violence prevention education program was revealed to at that moment “Real Talk Inc.”

I knew the name was a Godsend, because the term “Real Talk” was a very popular buzz word in my community. So I stuck with it. I even converted the term into an acronym and youth pledge. Each letter of Real Talk represented an action principle. For example, R=Resilience, E=Education, A=Action, L=Leadership, T=Triumph, A=Ambition, L=Legacy and K=Knowledge.

The Real Talk program is in place in the School District of University City, as well as in the City of St. Louis.

For more information contact Muhammad at realtalk3_11@yahoo.com.

As the founder and CEO of Real Talk Inc. I knew coming into the gate I would have to overcome many obstacles. I accepted this challenge by practicing what I teach. So the R in Real Talk represents “Resilience”. The first lesson we teach our students is the proper understanding and application of Resilience to overcome the traps and pitfalls of life growing up in the hood.