Quentin Walcott
Quentin Walcott is Director of CONNECT’s Training Institute and the Community Empowerment Program. At CONNECT, a New York City based organization dedicated to ending family and gender violence, Quentin also spearheads the Male Anti-Violence initiatives, where he creatively develops educational and training programs to cultivate participation and leadership by men in the anti-violence movement. Recent projects include the Verizon Joint Labor Management Committee initiative, Men & Women as Allies, a collaborative project that includes CWA Cornell University’s ILR School, for Verizon management and craft from CWA Locals 1106 & 1108, which creates awareness on the connections between Domestic violence, Bullying and Workplace violence. As a convener of the newly created V-Day Men’s Committee, he developed a curriculum and training for young adult males that examined violence against women and girls at V-Day’s New York Stop the Violence Festival. Quentin and his team of anti-violence educators have launched new city-wide network and workshops for men called Men@Work, looking to transform men and women from bystanders to allies to activists against family and gender violence.
Quentin trained, mentored by Dr. John Aponte has facilitated Batterer’s Intervention groups throughout New York City for over 12 years. Quentin is currently the Co-Chair of the Batterers Intervention Workers Task Force, a committee of men and women that run program batterers programs throughout New York City.
Quentin has previously worked with the Educational Alliance Early Head Start, piloting their Father Involvement Program and Southern Queens Park Association’s Families In Need Preventive Services Program as a teen group facilitator and Domestic Violence Specialist. Quentin has a wealth of experience facilitating groups for young and adult males on masculinity, manhood development, fathering, batterer’s intervention and accountability. Quentin combines his experience working with social agencies and several years of human rights work Harlem, Brooklyn and Queens bringing a new and fresh perspective to the work to end family violence.
With Quentin’s combined prevention and intervention experience he has developed ThinkfFirst! groups for men to address issues ranging from batterers intervention, fathering, and manhood development. ThinkFirst! is unique in that it is one of only a few men’s programs that accept volunteer and self-referrals in New York City and is independent of the criminal legal system.