The R.D.A. Foundation was created by Janita Sessoms, a Registered Nurse originally from Jersey City, NJ currently residing in Atlanta, GA. The R.D.A. Foundation was named after the founder’s late mother, who not only taught Janita what it means to give back but led by example.

Growing up, Janita was the youngest of 4, living in a single-parent household with her twin older sisters. Janita’s mom, Renee would go on to hold many job titles throughout Janita’s childhood, most times more than one at a time. However, the most memorable title she held was the one she held until her final days on earth, a security guard at a major high school in Jersey City. It would be during this time that Janita would truly see just how big her mom’s heart was.

During Renee's time as a security guard she would go on to make an impact on the lives of dozens and dozens of students, so much so that at her funeral she filled up a large church and had students coming up to the family introducing themselves and telling how much of a difference she made in their lives.

Renee has spent sometimes her last dime giving students lunch money, buying them winter jackets, helping send them to prom and so much more. Who better to help students in need than a woman who knew what it was like to go without?

It is because of these kind gestures, and the responses of the students that Janita knew she had to find a hundred ways to honor her mother’s legacy and keep paving the way forward, and the R.D.A. Foundation is the way she plans to begin to do that.

After losing her mom, life changed for Janita in a way she could not even begin to imagine. She experienced a pain, a heartbreak, a level of grief so great that she wouldn’t even realize how sad she was until she moved away from her hometown. It wouldn’t be until years later that Janita would begin to realize how much she did not truly cope with the loss but instead masked it and tried to suppress it and keep moving.

Working in healthcare has a funny way of shedding a mirror/light to areas of your personal live that make you no different than the patients you treat. Working with patients experiencing trauma, health scares, loss, new scary diagnosis, untreated mental illnesses, Janita began to view mental health from a different lens.

During her nursing studies, she remembers hearing the statement “The difference between a mentally stable and mentally unstable person is their inability to cope” and it has stuck with her. It was a realization that the only difference between her and someone deemed mentally unstable is a situation so difficult that they could not cope. Working in healthcare has also shifted her view on health as a whole and it truly being a combination the mental and physical to view a person’s wellbeing.

Through the R.D.A. Foundation she hopes to open doors, ears and heart to talks about mental health so that it is not a taboo topic, but instead one just as casual as talks on work and family. She wants to give her community a safe place to land, and equip them with the right resources that grant them the right tools to succeed.