Najiva Timothee saw a need for mentorship for teen girls in Macon-Bibb County, so she took it upon herself to create a program that would provide that. Timothee, administrative support associate at Mercer Law School, works with dozens of teen girls every year through a program she founded called the Girls Dig Deeper Initiative.
She first began mentoring with the Mentor’s Project of Bibb County, through which she was paired with two sisters at a local middle school. She spent time with them at their school as well as outside of school. When several of the sisters’ friends expressed interest in having a mentor, Timothee reached out to the school’s guidance counselor and became a mentor to 12 more girls. She met the 14 students at their school every Wednesday for what she called a “lunch and learn.”
“I built a wonderful relationship with those girls. My love for mentoring grew from there,” said Timothee, who worked with Mercer’s Upward Bound program before coming to Mercer Law School and continues to be involved with the Upward Bound summer program.
Timothee had to pause her mentoring when COVID-19 emerged, but she resumed her work as soon as she could and in a more official capacity, founding the Girls Dig Deeper Initiative. The program has expanded substantially since then, she said.
Girls Dig Deeper receives funding and support from Macon-Bibb County and its Macon Violence Prevention grant program, as well as other community partners. Timothee has four children of her own, ages 6 to 17, and considers all of her mentees to be her kids. She said she wanted to be involved in Macon Violence Prevention, so she could help Macon be a safer community not only for her own family but others as well.
Timothee’s program focuses on leadership development, personal growth, mental wellness and conflict resolution. She generally leads the programming related to leadership and personal growth, and she brings in local partners to help teach the latter two components.
“One of the things that has really helped me is my experience with leadership,” said Timothee, who was the executive lead in retail and pharmacy operations for Walgreens for 15 years before coming to Mercer and is a member of the Maxwell Leadership Certified Team. “Staying connected in places that uplift leadership has truly helped me to inspire my young people to be leaders too. That’s why it comes easy to facilitate that leadership piece. Thank you to my community partners. I’m not doing this alone.”
Each year, Timothee mentors more than 50 female students at four schools: Appling and Ballard middle schools and Howard and Rutland high schools. She stays connected with the girls as they matriculate into high school, and she has seen some of her first mentees graduate.
Timothee said she strives to be a “shining light” to her mentees and a person that’s “in their corner,” since many of them don’t have positive role models in their lives. She wants to meet them where they are and help them be the best they can be.
In addition, she meets with about 15 additional girls twice a month at Rosa Jackson Community Center and hosts monthly events that are open to those mentees, their families and the community.
This was the second summer that Timothee hosted a weeklong program for teen girls at the community center. Macon-Bibb County Mayor Lester Miller recognized her endeavors by declaring July 15-19 to be Girls Dig Deeper Initiative Summer Learning Week. Several community partners lent a hand for the week’s activities, which included a mental health session, an art night, a leadership workshop, and a community wellness event.
As another component of Girls Dig Deeper, Timothee mentors youth at local youth detention centers. She does one-on-one mentorship with one young woman and group mentorship sessions with 15 girls.
“I believe in second chances, and that’s one of the reasons that has motivated me to do this work,” she said. “A lot of them don’t have any guidance or support. Some of them are getting released back into the community. I want them to have some kind of motivation or hope to do better so that they don’t go back into the system.”
Timothee said it’s important to establish relationships when the youth are incarcerated, so she can help them work toward their goals once they are released, whether that’s obtaining their GED diploma, going to college, getting a job, serving in the military or taking another path. She wants to open their eyes to all of the possibilities and help them get back on their feet.
Looking toward the future, Timothee would like to put together a speaker series for her mentees and get Mercer Law School students involved in her organization. Her longer-term goals include opening her own youth development facility where she can host her events and turning Girls Dig Deeper into a multi-state program.
For more information about Girls Dig Deeper, visit https://girlsddi.org/about or email girlsddi@gmail.com.
