ProConn

Employment Experience

Winston Taylor has been employed with the State of Connecticut Department of Children and Families (DCF) for over eighteen (18) years, climbing his way up the ladder from social work trainee to social worker and currently for over eleven (11) years as a social work supervisor. His career has afforded him many opportunities to work in partnership with various community agencies such as the State social service agencies, police departments, community service providers, correctional facilities, adult and juvenile courts, school boards, hospitals, mental health clinics, foster parents, residential facilities and group homes, etc. He is a firm believer that when families succeed, communities also prosper.

Winston also was employed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the CIGNA Corporation, performing in a host of business administration positions in which have broaden his horizon on how corporate America works.

Community Service

Winston Taylor also has provided over twenty-four (24) years volunteer services, collaborating with the religious community and non-profits in Hartford, New Haven, Norwich and New London, CT, Huntsville, AL and East St. Louis, IL and Louisville, KY in the capacity of church treasurer, deacon, spiritual leader, Sunday school and bible study teacher, assistant youth director, missionary, founding/chartered member, program director, and serving on board of directors.

Over the years after serving others Winston Taylor has been affectionately called by the name Brother Winston. The name Winston means “friendly town” and he shows brotherly love and kindness to all. Brother Winston believes that God has called him to help reclaim, revitalize and restore our families and communities. He is a firm believer that when we serve the least of God’s people (poor, hungry, oppressed, sick, homeless, imprisoned, etc.), we are serving God (Matthew 25:35-36, 40) and we will be rewarded accordingly to our deeds.

During the summers of 1987 and 1988, Winston gave up his summer vacations and answered the call to serve as a missionary through the Southern Baptist Convention Home Mission Board and was stationed in the then impoverished bankrupt city of East St. Louis, IL, working in a center and providing recreational and religious instructions to various children and youth in the city and to neighboring churches in the association.

Winston Taylor has been a volunteer in Connecticut's level 4 and maximum-security prisons since 5/96. He has served at the Radgowski Correctional Institution and Corrigan both in Uncasville, CT, J.B. Gates (closed 2011), York Women Prison, York (Men) all three in Niantic, CT and the Manson Youth Institution, Cheshire, CT. He developed the majority of his lectures and curricula, providing family centered life skills, employment seminars, crime prevention and religious instructions. The activities are created with understanding the affects of poverty and human oppression on individuals, families and communities. His interventions support the Department of Correction's effort to involve inmates in rehabilitation, recovery, and reintegration.

Winston also has successfully completed two graduate internships while pursuing his master of social work degree. The first internship was with the Department of Children and Families (DCF), serving in the capacity of regional mentor coordinator. He was able to establish the mentor program in both the Norwich and Willimantic DCF offices and was successful in recruiting over 40 mentor volunteers and training 13 mentors as well as matching them with teens in the care of DCF. He received several letters of recognition from the then DCF's Commissioner Kristine D. Ragaglia for the dedicated services in making this program a success. He also served on the Commissioner’s statewide diversity team. This team was able to implement new hiring procedures and practices for the agency to make the interviewing and selection process more equitable.

His second internship was with the Community Partners In Action's Resettlement Program based in Hartford, CT as a case manager. Winston worked directly with men and women discharging from the Correctional Institutions in Niantic, CT, making referrals and connecting them to community resources. During this internship, he was successful in reuniting 10 inmates back into the community.

In addition, he has developed several mentor programs for at risk young males and participated in many mentoring projects and programs such as Drug Education For Youth (D.E.F.Y.), Big Brothers/Big Sisters, Junior Achievement, Career Beginning, etc.

In 2008 – 2009, Winston served statewide as the lead instructor for teens ages 12-15 in the Connecticut Missionary Baptist Convention Congress of Christian Education, working with over 100 young persons.

Winston Taylor also found time to serve as a foster parent for two years and a life long mentor to many young people many of whom are now productive adults with families of their own.