Rock Project hosts free Community Enrichment Day in Richmond: 'Love and unity'

RICHMOND, Va. — The Rock Project, a Richmond-based youth mentoring program, hosted a free Community Enrichment Day Saturday at Liberation Church, 5501 Midlothian Turnpike, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The event featured food, brand new tennis shoes, gift cards, school supplies, bounce houses, and guest speakers.

Darryl Johnston, founder of The Rock Project, said the event came together through the collective effort of three community-minded organizers who wanted to give back regardless of outside support.

"Us three brothers came together, you know, so we're all from different sides of the town, and we just wanna come together as a group and just put on for the community," Johnston said.

Johnston said the message of the day was simple — unity and love, no matter where you come from.

"Everybody got left here with something. I don't care if it was a toy, a pair of shoes, a gift card, and just love, unity, man, and just come together no matter where you're from. We're all together, man, and I'm happy hopefully every kid here leave here with something too," Johnston said.

Johnston said events like Saturday's are vital for a community that needs more positive outlets.

"It just gets people to have a good time. People be going through depression and stuff like that, and people stay out of trouble, man. This is what we need more of this. And a lot of times we'd be reaching out to other people, the big hats to come out here, but they don't never come out here with us, man. So we gonna do this from the mud up, man, out our own funds, man, for sure," Johnston said.

Johnston closed with a message of peace.

"I just want everybody to keep coming together, man, and hopefully we can stop some of the violence, but I want everybody to come together, man. I'm real big on peace, man, no matter where you're from, man," Johnston said.

WATCH: Darryl Johnston finally found a home for The Rock Project in Richmond

Saturday's event is the latest chapter in Johnston's years-long effort to build a safe and supportive space for Richmond's youth. Johnston founded The Rock Project as a youth mentoring program, providing students with a safe space to learn, grow, and have fun. In 2024, he secured a building at 7½ W. Marshall Street in downtown Richmond to serve as The Rock Project's permanent home base — a milestone he described at the time as a dream come true.

"I just always said one day I want to have my own building," Johnston said in 2024. "I'm in the center of downtown Richmond, so now I can get kids from Southside, Northside, Henrico, Chesterfield, the East End."

Johnston and his wife Diamond, who lost friends and family to gun violence, have long envisioned The Rock Project as a refuge for anyone who walks through its doors.

"When they come through those doors, they are free from everything that may be going on in their lives," Diamond Johnston said in 2024.