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Photo Credit: EbonyWright/S. Delois Mayes Scholarship Foundation 

Walk In It founder Dr. Jennell Riddick is celebrated for her community leader work. The Executive Director and Founder of Walk In It Inc., a nonprofit organization focused on empowering girls and women, has been selected as a recipient of the Community Leadership Award and will be honored at the S. Delois Mayes Scholarship Foundation’s 10th Annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service Event at 10 a.m. on Monday, January 15. With her Walk In It Ladies of Distinction Mentor/Character Development Program serving over 700 girls in Hampton Roads and beyond, Riddick’s work in non-profit and the community continues to positively impact many lives while being a wife, mother, minister, and author. Ahead of the brunch, Riddick talked about what it meant to her being selected as a recipient of the award.

“Well I was certainly excited and very honored,” Riddick said. “I know that there are so many individuals who are doing great things for our community. And so I was very honored to receive the notification that I had been selected for this honor and grateful.” 

Riddick talked about the work she and her team put into Walk In It, Inc., noting its mission of academically, emotionally, socially and physically developing girls and women.

“We got started in 2007 just really seeing the need to provide some additional support and resources, particularly to our young women,” Riddick said. “I noticed so much untapped potential that they possessed and realize that if they kind of had someone to come alongside them and provide any mentoring, some academic support at times for tutoring, exposure opportunities so that they could see maybe different ways of living and just be exposed to different ways of thought, and so it was just our goal really to be part of their holistic health.” 

Riddick says that she and her team noticed different programs that were doing “phenomenal work” but focused on specific areas, such as focusing on academic health, and not addressing social emotional well-being.

“So when we started, we said, ‘Okay, hey, like they have all this amazing potential. How can we come alongside this particular demographic and help them to really become the best version of themselves?’ So that was really the heart of it…” she said.

Riddick says that Walk In It, Inc. provides programs for girls in Grades 4 through 12 and a program titled Raising Excellent Daughters, which is focused on providing parental support. For adults, the non-profit works with female entrepreneurs and various women to help them become holistically healthy in all areas of their lives, including mentally, spiritually and emotionally.

“So we’re just so excited and honored to be able to do this work. We’ve seen tremendous impact, both in our adult women in terms of their successes and overcoming challenges and fulfilling lifetime goals as a part of our organization, and also the young women that we’ve been serving who are going off to attend college,” she said. “They themselves are providing internships now for some of the young women who are coming behind them and so it’s just wonderful to see some of those full circle moments. And so we’re just so grateful to be able to do this work for our community.”

Riddick reflected on the community support given towards the work of Walk In It, Inc., noting that it has been “wonderful.”

“From individuals who have come alongside our mission, who have helped to support whether volunteering or just their expertise or even stepping in to be a mentor, coming in to be a guest speaker at a meeting that the girls may have in their schools has been great. Of course, we partner heavily with the school system, and so we’re so grateful to be able to partner of course with Suffolk Public Schools, Portsmouth Public Schools, Chesapeake, I mean in all surrounding areas, Southampton County, Franklin,” Riddick said. “It’s just great that the school system trusts us and sees the results that our program has had and allows us to actually come into the schools, particularly in afterschool programming and work with the students. So from the schools to the parents to individuals throughout the community, there’s been tremendous support in you know, furthering our mission and helping us to continue to expand.”

 Riddick expressed her hopes for how Walk In It, Inc. will continue to impact the community.

“I hope that my work for the Suffolk community just continues to build strong, healthy young women and adult women who become leaders, who also give back,” Riddick said. “So whether it’s through passing on the information that they’re learning, whether it’s starting a business and being able to employ others, but my hope is that all of the lessons they’ve learned, all of the exposure opportunities they’ve received that they would pay forward and that we can continue to have healthy communities because the citizens are strong and healthy and whole.”

The S. Delois Mayes Scholarship Foundation will hold its 10th Annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service Event at the Hilton Garden Inn Suffolk Riverfront at 5921 Harbour View Blvd at 10 a.m. on Monday, January 15. Tickets will cost $60 per person, with tickets per table (8 tickets) costing $480. Each ticket will include brunch. Ticket sales will end on January 8. 

For more information and to purchase tickets, go to sdmscholarshipfoundation.com/annual-mlk-day-of-service.