March is National Social Worker Month, a month to recognize and appreciate social workers throughout the nation. One local Social Worker shares his passion and experience for his career.
Richard A. Winder, Sr. knew from the beginning that he was ordained to do community service. In 1964, while a senior at St. Augustine High in New Orleans, LA, Winder volunteered to teach religious studies at a church on the edge of the Desire Projects. One year later, Hurricane Betsy hit New Orleans and delayed the start of his first year at Xavier University. While Winder waited to start school, he joined a group of volunteers to clean up the campus. When they received clearance to open the school, the same ministry worked at the hurricane shelter open for the survivors in Algiers. While volunteering, Winder used his people skills to encourage, mentor, and give hope to those who could not return home.
Staying focused on helping others, Winder gained his first full-time job at DePaul Psychiatric Hospital in March 1968. He graduated from Xavier in 1969 and was chosen by his supervisor at DePaul to be the director of a community-based drug treatment center in Central City, Lower Nine, and Desire. The mission was to free Methadone users of their addiction to the drug.
It was further emphasized to Winder that helping others was his destiny when he received a full-ride scholarship and all-expenses-paid fellowship to Tulane University School of Social Work in 1972. By 1973, Winder had earned his Master of Social Work.
After graduation, he landed a job at Xavier University’s Counseling Center. Winder’s five-year career at Xavier University Counseling Center flew by like a comet. In 1979, the City of New Orleans hired him as the Superintendent of the Milne Boys Home and then later the Superintendent of the Youth Study Juvenile Detention Center. His last and final stop with the city of New Orleans was as the Director of Human Services, culminating 31 years of service in 2010.
Winder wanted to retire to the great city of Monroe, LA. However, retirement was never retirement, given his work on the Mount Olivet Baptist Church Board of Directors since 2011, consulting on youth services activities for a private company and serving as the only MSW on the Board of Directors of the Louisiana Housing Corporation (LHC). LHC’s mission is to provide affordable housing to all veterans, homeless families, and mothers with children. As Winder believes, Social Work is truly God’s work. He loves every second of the field, including those rough days when he started his trek in 1964.
Winder would like to encourage those thinking about a career in social work to keep their eyes on the prize. It is a rewarding field due to the vital roles social workers have in the community.
