Fit To Lead trains youth, returning citizens, and community members to become health ambassadors, wellness leaders, peer educators, and workforce-ready professionals who improve health outcomes from within their own communities.
Founder
Ricky L. Martin
Fit To Go Community Wellness
The System
One curriculum. Three populations. A unified pipeline that turns community members into trained, paid, and trusted health leaders.
Train high school students and young adults to become Community Health Leaders in their schools and neighborhoods.
Outcome
Confident young leaders capable of serving as wellness ambassadors in schools and neighborhoods.
Empower returning citizens to transform lived experience into leadership, service, and stable employment.
Outcome
Pathways to employment, purpose, and successful reintegration into the community.
Schools, nonprofits, health systems, housing communities, and local governments implement the Fit To Lead system.
Outcome
Sustainable community wellness infrastructure that scales.
Measurable Impact
165+
Community Leaders Trained
10
Training Cohorts Completed
20+
Years of Leadership
National
Men's Health Recognition
The Approach
Built from within the neighborhoods being served.
Residents become the trusted messengers.
Creates practical, employable skills.
Participants collect and report community data.
Replicable across schools, agencies, organizations.
Tracks participation, engagement, and outcomes.
The Pipeline
Participants are trained to collect meaningful community wellness data — much like community health workers — helping organizations better understand and improve local health outcomes.
Pipeline Diagram
One curriculum, three on-ramps — feeding a single trained, data-capable workforce that serves the neighborhoods it comes from.
Aligned with City Priorities
Fit To Lead advances eight of Richmond's most pressing civic and health priorities in a single, coordinated system.
Youth Development
Workforce Development
Community Health
Violence Prevention
Neighborhood Revitalization
Re-Entry Success
Health Equity
Community Engagement
Origin
The original community training model.
Ten cohorts across Richmond.
Featured in Men's Health Magazine.
Workforce development pipeline goes live.
Across Richmond and beyond.
About The Founder
Community wellness leader. Workforce builder. Innovator.
Founder of Fit To Go Community Wellness Services and creator of the original Fitness Warriors training model — a grassroots framework that has trained 165+ community leaders over the past decade.
With more than 20 years of experience developing community health initiatives, training peer leaders, and facilitating wellness programs, Ricky has built one of Richmond's most durable workforce-through-health pipelines.
Featured in Men's Health Magazine and recognized nationally for innovative, community-based wellness leadership.
20+
Years Experience
10
Cohorts Led
165+
Leaders Trained
Partnership
Seeking partnerships with local governments, schools, health systems, foundations, workforce agencies, housing communities, and nonprofit organizations interested in developing sustainable community health leadership pipelines.