Dilligence Training

Community wellness is built when people are given meaningful opportunities to move, connect, and engage with one another. On Saturday, that was the purpose behind the 2026 Urban League of Greater Hartford Young Professionals games. The event brought together five teams representing Parker Memorial, Our Piece of the Pie, UConn Health, Professional Young Visionaries of Tomorrow (PYVOT), and other members of the community for a day centered on movement, teamwork, connection, and shared experience. PYVOT earned this year’s championship, but the larger success was the collective investment in community health and engagement. Dilligence Training and DT Cares were proud to serve as the Official Community Wellness Co-Collaborators, partnering with the Urban League Greater Hartford Young Professionals to sponsor and facilitate the games. This initiative demonstrated that preventive wellness does not only take place inside a clinic or fitness facility. It can also happen in a park, through trusted partnerships, culturally relevant programming, and experiences that make movement accessible and enjoyable. By bringing community organizations, professionals, leaders, and families into one space, the YP Games helped strengthen relationships while creating a practical entry point into wellness and prevention. This is what community wellness looks like. This is prevention in action. This is how stronger communities are built. 📸: Kellen Russell #CommunityWellness #PreventiveHealth #CommunityLeadership

Wellness becomes increasingly accessible when community is the foundation. 🙌🏿 For five years, Malcolm A. Little, Renae James, and the entire Eight Six Go team have created a consistent space for movement, connection, and accountability across Greater Hartford, engaging hundreds of people each week and reaching thousands throughout the year. Through DT Cares and Dilligence Training, I have been fortunate to support this initiative as a wellness partner by providing education, proper warm-ups, movement support, and resources that help participants move with greater confidence and intention. It has also been powerful to welcome Dr. Andraé Townsel, Superintendent of Hartford Public Schools, into the Eight Six Go community. His presence reinforces an important truth: leaders must work harder on themselves than they do at their jobs, because the greatest investment they will ever make is in their own health. This is how we build stronger communities, by sharing our resources, aligning our platforms, leading by example and expanding access to wellness. Every Tuesday, 6pm, Bushnell Park, Hartford, Connecticut. There’s a space for everyone. We look forward to seeing you next week! 🔗: https://lnkd.in/g5k3TRju #CommunityWellness #Hartford #LeadershipInAction

Two years ago, I had the opportunity to speak with the young leaders at Covenant Preparatory School. Returning today for their summer academy made their growth clear and reflected the consistent leadership of Nikki Cannavo Digel, Michela "Kela" Perkins, and their entire staff. Their confidence, thoughtful questions, and willingness to engage reinforced an important truth: meaningful youth development is built through consistency. Our conversation centered on character, preparation, relationships, and self advocacy. One message anchored the session: If you do not give yourself access to reach your full potential, no one else will. Young people need more than a single conversation. They need trusted adults and intentional environments that reinforce accountability, belonging, and belief. Thank you to the Covenant Prep community for continuing to build that environment. The future is not something we wait for. It is something we intentionally develop. DT Cares Dilligence Training #YouthDevelopment #Leadership #DTCares

I am deeply honored to be recognized as the 2026 Entrepreneur of the Year by the West Hartford Chamber of Commerce and to be selected to serve on its Board of Directors. First and foremost, I thank God. Without Him, none of this would be possible. Thank you to Christopher Conway, Kate Kobs, Jenn Frontiero, and the entire Board for this acknowledgment and for creating a space that celebrates leadership, business, and community impact. To my fiancée Maraly Maldonado and my mother, thank you for your unwavering support. My mother believed in me long before I believed in myself. She taught me the values, principles, and integrity that continue to guide every decision I make. For years, football was my identity. I thought making it to the NFL would be how I paid my mother back. When that dream did not happen, I found myself at one of the lowest points in my life. In 2018, I found God, and I found purpose. That purpose led to the co-founding of Dilligence Training in 2019. From the beginning, it was never just about fitness. It was about mental health, emotional wellness, healing, and community. Since then, my team and I have been blessed to impact thousands of lives through our facility and partnerships with schools, municipalities, and community organizations. In 2023, I was blessed to fulfill a lifelong commitment by hiring my mother full-time. That same year, co-founded DT Cares with my childhood brothers Terrell Huff, MBA & Raishaun McGhee, our 501(c)(3) nonprofit holistic mentorship program created to build the next generation of leaders through mentorship, wellness, career exposure, and community-based support. This recognition is bigger than me. It belongs to my family, my team, my community, and everyone who sees part of their story in mine. I left everyone with two pledges: Protect your health. Without it, we do not have anything. Remember, we were all once kids who needed someone to believe in us. So my ask is that we all continue to be who we needed growing up. The work continues. If you would like to learn more about the work we are building through Dilligence Training and DT Cares, I invite you to join us at our 7 Year Leadership Summit on August 1st at Rentschler Field. You will be joining mayors, superintendents, C-suite executives, educators, community leaders, and practitioners who are actively shaping outcomes across Connecticut and beyond. More importantly, you will hear directly from the young people, families, and community partners who continue to inspire this work every day. Learn more: https://lnkd.in/dSrP9rhr Thank you God. Thank you. 🙏🏿 #Leadership #Entrepreneurship #CommunityImpact #WestHartford #Connecticut #Mentorship #Wellness #DilligenceTraining #DTCares

Wellness should not be performative. Mae Maloney, thank you for your words and for recognizing the intention behind this work. Larisa Kottke thank you for trusting Dilligence Training to support the Leadership Greater Hartford Quest Leadership session. At Dilligence Training, we help organizations move beyond check-the-box wellness and build human-centered wellness infrastructure that supports real behavior change. Before our Leadership Greater Hartford session, participants had the opportunity to share their needs, identify modifications, and choose the experience that best supported them. That process matters. When people feel seen, heard, and prepared, wellness becomes more accessible, more personal, and more effective. Our work complements Employee Assistance Programs by bringing wellness into the room through movement, mindfulness, injury prevention, stress regulation, team connection, and sustainable habit formation. We also believe impact should be evaluated, not assumed. Following the offering, participants shared takeaways and feedback that helped measure engagement, accessibility, participant experience, and opportunities for continuous improvement. The goal is not perfection. It is awareness, consistency, and understanding that your 100% can look different every day. For HR leaders, people leaders, school districts, municipalities, and organizations ready to make wellness more personal, practical, and measurable, let’s build a wellness strategy that meets your people where they are and supports where they are going. 🔗: https://lnkd.in/eeUmXdNN Leadership Center Connecticut #LeadershipGreaterHartford #DilligenceTraining #WorkplaceWellness #EmployeeWellbeing #HolisticWellness #BehaviorChange #InjuryPrevention #Mindfulness #TeamBuilding #WorkforceSustainability

I’m honored to share that I’ve been named Entrepreneur of the Year by the West Hartford Chamber of Commerce This recognition means more to me than a title or an award. It represents the journey. After my football career ended, I found myself in a deep place of depression and identity loss. Since 6 years old, I knew myself through the lens of being just an athlete. So when that chapter closed, I had to do the necessary mirror work to rediscover who I was beyond the game of football. That process led me to holistic wellness. Taking care of my mental health, emotional well-being, spiritual wellness, and physical wellness which then helped me turn my life around. Through that work, I reverse engineered my life and I found purpose and eventually turned that purpose into a business, Dilligence Training In 2019, my mother became my first client. What started with one client has now grown into a mission driven business that has allowed me to hire my mother full time, build alongside my childhood friends, now business partners Terrell Huff, MBA Raishaun McGhee to expand the impact of our physical gym locations, and be recognized as Best of Hartford for the past five years. Beyond our gym walls, we’ve also been granted access to work across multiple school districts, bringing holistic, upstream wellness programming to young people and communities who need access, support, and intentional care. In 2023, we expanded that mission by establishing DT Cares, our 501(c)(3) nonprofit created to provide access, involvement, and empowerment to youth in our community. Our guiding mantra is simple: “To be who you needed growing up.” Through DT Cares, we’ve been fortunate to receive support from partners and funders including Greater Hartford Gives, The Governor's Prevention Partnership, Wheeler Health, and others who believe in the work being done to serve the next generation. So for me, this award is bigger than entrepreneurship. It is about using your story to serve others. It is about being a light for the kid that will no longer play sports after years of commitment, to the person who has considered taking a leap mid career, the person sitting on a gift they may not fully recognize yet, or the person trying to find themselves after a season of uncertainty. This award belongs to my community, my team, my family, my loved ones, and every person who has supported this work along the way. Without you, there is no impact. Thank you to the West Hartford Chamber of Commerce for this acknowledgment. I’m truly grateful and looking forward to celebrating this moment on June 22nd. The work continues. #WestHartfordChamber #EntrepreneurOfTheYear #CommunityImpact

American International College Commencement 2026 | Alumni Pledge & Turning of the Tassel 🎓 This was one of those full-circle moments that words can barely hold. As a proud AIC alumnus, being invited to serve as the Alumni Speaker and lead the Class of 2026 through the Alumni Pledge was an honor I will never forget. To stand on that stage, looking out at graduates preparing to step into their next chapter, reminded me of my own journey.. The uncertainty, the growth, the lessons, the faith, and the purpose that carried me here. The Alumni Pledge is more than words on a page. It is a commitment to remain connected, to serve, to lead with integrity, and to contribute to something bigger than yourself. Guiding the graduates through that pledge, and then witnessing the turning of the tassel as they officially transitioned from students to proud AIC alumni, was powerful. A special thank you to Michael Dodge, Ed. D., MBA for the introduction and for helping make this moment even more meaningful. Now to my LinkedIn community, what advice would you give to the Class of 2026 as they enter their next chapter? #AIC #AmericanInternationalCollege #Commencement2026 #AlumniSpeaker #AICAlumni #Graduation #Leadership #Purpose #HigherEducation #StudentSuccess