The Award
The Community Service Award is presented each year to an individual, corporation or organization in recognition of excellence in service to the community and for efforts on the part of the recipient through their advocacy of issues of workplace equity, abatement of police deviance, and such activities has garnered the positive confidence in the institution of policing to further strong, positive bonds and relationships between police and communities of color.
The Honoree
Barbara Fair is a lifelong resident of New Haven and a widely recognized community advocate whose work has focused on social justice, education, and reform within the criminal justice system. For decades she has been a prominent voice in Connecticut on issues related to incarceration, prison conditions, and community accountability. Born and raised in New Haven, Fair has long centered her life around family and service. She is the mother of eleven children, grandmother to thirty-four grandchildren, and great grandmother to ten. She frequently describes family as the foundation of her life and values, extending that commitment beyond her biological relatives to what she calls her community family. Her sense of responsibility to her community has shaped her lifelong dedication to helping those she believes are often unseen and unheard in society.Fair is licensed by the Connecticut Department of Public Health as a Master’s level Clinical Social Worker. Her early sense of service was rooted in her upbringing in the Baptist church, where she developed a strong commitment to helping others through faith, community involvement, and service. Over the course of her professional career she worked with children and families throughout the New Haven area and became particularly focused on improving educational access and support systems for young people.
One of the most meaningful chapters of her career came through her work in education. As a clinical social worker she established and operated a school-based health clinic within a New Haven elementary school. The clinic provided direct counseling and support services for students and families and helped address social, emotional, and behavioral needs that often interfered with learning. Fair has often described this work with children and families as the most rewarding experience of her professional life.
Over time, after witnessing what she believed were abuses of power and systemic problems within policing and correctional systems, Fair turned much of her advocacy toward efforts aimed at transforming those institutions. She was selected by former New Haven mayor Toni Harp to serve on the city’s Police Community Task Force. In that role she worked with community leaders, residents, and law enforcement representatives to address tensions between police and the community and to explore ways to improve transparency, accountability, and trust.
Fair later became a leading advocate for criminal justice reform throughout Connecticut, particularly around the treatment of incarcerated people. Her work has included legislative advocacy, policy reform efforts, and public education campaigns focused on creating what she describes as a more just, humane, and rehabilitative correctional system. Among her most significant advocacy efforts was championing the closure of Connecticut’s only supermaximum security prison after the facility was cited by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture as a location where incarcerated people experienced conditions considered abusive and inhumane.
Beyond policy work, Fair remains deeply committed to educating and mobilizing families affected by incarceration. She regularly hosts community engagement meetings where families can learn about conditions inside correctional facilities, understand proposed legislation and policy changes, and become involved in advocacy efforts aimed at improving the treatment of incarcerated individuals.
Through decades of social work, community leadership, and public advocacy, Barbara Fair has become one of Connecticut’s most recognized voices in the movement for criminal justice reform. Her work reflects a lifelong commitment to service, to her community, and to the belief that dignity, fairness, and humane treatment should remain central to any justice system.