Deborah Barrows is responsible for coordinating supportive programming and managing the staff and participants completing community projects. Through collaborative relationships with Judges, Attorneys, Court staff, and the Greater Hartford Community, Deborah ensures a positive and impactful experience for participants mandated to participate in a community service project.
Deborah’s philosophy is that the performance of community service can play a vital role in engaging individuals to become reinvested in the community. She believes that supporting community-based prevention and intervention initiatives is a movement toward self-sufficiency in urban communities.
Under her leadership, the Community Service Program has expanded by including more community projects like growing vegetable gardens that produce food donated to food banks and shelters. In addition, she expanded the program’s outreach to include our neighbors experiencing homelessness. Resources such as bringing community agencies onsite were set up at the court to address participants' basic needs “where they are.”
Deborah started with Community Partners in Action in 2006 in our Hartford Area Mediation Program. Later that year, she became Program Manager for the Community Service Program at Hartford Community Court. Before joining CPA, Deborah spent over 20 years in law enforcement with the City of Hartford Police Department. Supporting the philosophy of Community Oriented Policing allowed her to forge partnerships within the community and support grass-root efforts to promote safe and sustainable communities.
Deborah has an associates degree in Liberal Arts from Asnuntuck Community College and a bachelor’s degree in Psychology, with a minor in Social Work from Eastern Connecticut State University. She also has a certificate in the Black Ministries Program from the Hartford International University for Religion and Peace (formerly Hartford Seminary).
In her free time, Deborah also enjoys reading, cooking and gardening