G.D.K.U. — Guns Down · Knowledge Up

The Mission

Transform a culture of violence

Our mission is to educate, inspire, and mobilize — to guide young people toward knowledge and away from violence, and give them room to grow, lead, and imagine a future with more choices.

Educate

Knowledge opens doors. We promote awareness, clearer choices, and a deeper understanding of how violence affects children, families, and the future of the whole community.

Inspire

Every young person deserves to see possibility beyond the pressure around them. We affirm purpose, potential, responsibility, and the belief that a different path is possible.

Mobilize

Real change takes all of us. We call families, neighbors, faith leaders, organizations, and supporters to turn shared concern into united, positive community action.

Why youth come first

When a child is guided toward knowledge and away from violence, that child gains room to grow, lead, and imagine a future with more choices.

That change does not stop with one person. It strengthens the family around them, influences peers, restores hope, and helps reshape what the next generation believes is normal and possible.

Prevention is more than avoiding harm. It is building identity, confidence, connection, and a reason to choose life.

What G.D.K.U. stands for

Lifeover violence
Knowledgeover ignorance
Hopeover fear
Communityover isolation
Actionover silence

The Work

Where the mission puts its hands

G.D.K.U. is a working movement — workshops for the mind, land for the hands, and gear built for both. This is the work on the ground now, and the ground it is growing toward.

Youth Workshops

Sessions that put young people in the room with real talk and real tools — starting with Frequency Check, a workshop on energy, environment, and who you let in your circle. Knowledge, taught like it matters, because it does.

On the ground

The Land — Bunn, NC

Three acres in Franklin County are the future home ground of G.D.K.U.: farming and gardening programs where young people learn to grow food, work the land, and build something with their hands. The G.D.K.U. Garden Kit — heirloom seeds, gloves, and a “Strong Roots, Bold Blooms” lesson card — carries that lesson home.

Building now

Field & Workout Gear

The movement dresses for the work: field gear for the farm and workout gear for the training, carrying the seal and the message into the garden, the gym, and the street.

Building now

Life Through Sports

The next field of play: training life through sports, baseball first — the game as a classroom for discipline, teamwork, and choices. It starts where the founder started: a Louisburg kid who made the 10-year-old All-Stars, now coming back to coach the next ones up.

On the horizon

Our Story

Born from loss. Committed to hope.

G.D.K.U. was formed in July 2017 following the tragic loss of Louisburg resident Don Findley. The organization carries that grief forward as a commitment — to help end violence, uplift youth, and create real change.

Its founder, Dorian Cannady, is a Louisburg native who left home to serve — U.S. Navy, aviation ordnance, Beachmaster Unit Two, 26 countries — gathering knowledge everywhere he went, on purpose, to bring it back to his people. On June 6, 2020, he stood before his hometown at the Franklin County Candlelight Vigil and spoke — and Louisburg has known his voice ever since.

The strategy is the same as the life: think big, build it, then come back — return home with real resources and real power to change the ground you came from.

Principles
Values
Morals
Dignity

“Change a child’s life. Change a family. Change a community. Change the world.”
The G.D.K.U. Creed

The G.D.K.U. mission flyer: Guns Down. Knowledge Up. — the mission, the Educate / Inspire / Mobilize pillars, and the call to stand with G.D.K.U. — The mission flyer · Louisburg, NC

Wear the Message

The message you can wear

G.D.K.U. and Konscious Society carry one message in both directions: the clothes preach what G.D.K.U. teaches, and G.D.K.U. teaches what the clothes preach.

The G.D.K.U. shield: an open book rising like the sun inside a laurel wreath, ringed by the words Guns Down · Knowledge Up and G.D.K.U. · Est. 2017 · Louisburg, NC — **The Shield** One mark carries the whole mission — the open book rising in the laurel, guns down and knowledge up, worn by everyone who stands with G.D.K.U.

20% of Konscious Society proceeds go to the G.D.K.U. program — every piece sold helps fund the workshops, the land, and the youth this movement exists for.

Get Involved

The mission calls all of us forward

Reach youth early

Give young people knowledge, encouragement, and reasons to choose a safer path.

Strengthen the circle

Support the families, mentors, neighbors, and leaders who shape a child’s environment.

Move together

Turn grief and concern into visible, united action that restores hope.

Stand with G.D.K.U.

Volunteer your time, partner your organization, or support the work. Tell us who you are and how you want to stand — your message opens in your own email, addressed straight to the founder. No list, no middleman.