On Thursday, January 30, Macon-Bibb County recognized National Mentoring Month by presenting a Mayoral Proclamation to Girls Dig Deeper Initiative (GDDI), a Macon Violence Prevention partner. The proclamation was read by Macon Violence Prevention (MVP) Coordinator Jeremy Grissom.

January is National Mentoring Month, an annual campaign to raise awareness and celebrate the powerful impact of mentoring relationships, recruit new mentors, and encourage institutions to integrate quality mentoring into their policies and practices. 

Girls Dig Deeper Initiative is a girls group mentoring and youth development program in Central Georgia which serve youth in schools and communities, and incarcerated youth ages 13-17. They provide 1:1, group, and a team model mentoring approach within the organization. It launched its leadership development program, The Winners' Mindset, in January to teach youth girls to rise up and win regardless of the challenges they face.

Its mission is to foster guidance, support, and encouragement to all youth girls to dig deep within themselves to access their inner potential and expand their capacity to be a positive influence to themselves and others.

GDDI received $15,500 in grant funding in 2023 from the Macon Violence Prevention (MVP) program. In the first round of funding, they received $5,500 and in the second round this year, they received $10,000 to offer leadership development programs designed to help young girls overcome barriers such as childhood poverty, chronic absenteeism, poor academic achievement, disability, adverse childhood experiences and community violence.