Taylor Ford

Taylor Ford is a Connecticut native with a passion for addressing mental health and practicing intentional self-care. She aspires to help create safe spaces for people to explore their own mental health as well as non-traditional ways to heal. Taylor is the Statewide Youth and Family Coordinator at Connecticut’s statewide, multicultural family support organization, FAVOR, Inc. based out of Wethersfield, CT. In this role, she works to educate and support youth and families to tap into their own power and use their voice to advocate for a more family driven and youth guided children’s mental health system. Taylor has worked primarily with high school students in various areas throughout Connecticut to educate them on mental health, wellness, and the system of care. In this education, she supports young people in brainstorming ways for them to support themselves, each other and their communities. Although her work has been concentrated in state, she has presented her work with facilitating community conversations with youth and young adults at national conferences including the National Federation of Families of Children with Mental Health, the Annual Children’s Mental Health Research & Policy Conference on Child, Adolescent, and Young Adult Behavioral Health and her collaborative work with Youth Mental Health First Aid and a Health Occupations Student of America (HOSA) site at the Young Adult Behavioral Health and Annual Conference on Advancing School Mental Health.

Just before joining the Jamii Sisterhood executive team, Taylor was able to attend a few of the Project Freedom site visits as a subject matter expert (SME). Her goal as both SME and executive team member is to intentionally make space for mental health to be included in program and curriculum development conversations for both students and faculty of higher education in prison programs. Just as she is set to begin her teaching journey with the Second Chance Educational Alliance, Inc., Taylor has also begun providing individual therapy to clients. She is currently working to accumulate clinical hours to acquire her LCSW. With all that she is doing, she  plans to bring her experiences from site visits and knowledge on mental health and wellness into both the classroom and clinical sessions.

Taylor received her Bachelor of Arts from Providence College with a major in Sociology and a minor in Black Studies, then went on to receive her Masters of Social Work from the University Of Connecticut School of Social Work with a focus in Policy Practice. She had the opportunity to intern with the Reentry Department at the Rhode Island Department of Corrections and worked closely with the Fatherhood Initiative to create resources for families of incarcerated men who wanted to participate in the extended family visits; and with the development team at Community Solutions, Inc. for youth programs and began her work with youth and young adults shortly after. Taylor has been a member of Katal Center for Health, Equity and Justice where she supported community conversations around housing, co-facilitated presentations to Department of Children and Families social workers on the impact of the criminal justice system and community organizing in CT, and helped to plan and participate in actions on the Free Them Now CT campaign.