Last Friday, my business partner, Anne Rogers, President and Founder of Restorative Solutions and a luminary in the field of restorative justice, passed away after a tiring battle with cancer. It is a deep loss. She was a dear friend and colleague and she brought much to the field of restorative justice over the many decades she worked in it.

Anne gave most all of her life to restorative community justice. She was a nationally recognized leader, consultant and trainer in the restorative community justice movement. She was responsible for providing restorative practices within criminal justice, schools, law enforcement, probation and communities and she facilitated dialogues and circles in a number of high profile cases of severe violence, going places few have the skill to manage.

It’s hard to say all the wonderful things that Anne brought to the field, especially in our state of Colorado, but I thought I would share some of her accomplishments as we remember a dear soul who meant a lot to us.

Anne was the Director of the Community Restorative Justice Partnership, a non-profit organization that provides restorative justice services to the courts, district attorney and probation.  Anne provided training and education, technical assistance, resources, program development and policy development.  She was the founding director of The Forum on Community and Restorative Justice. During her tenure at the Forum, the organization produced and published newsletter, videos and other publications, directed six national conferences on Restorative Community Justice, provided training to over 1000 individuals and organizations and assisted over 30 communities in implementing restorative justice programs.

Prior to joining The Forum, Anne was the Victim Services Coordinator for the Office of Probation Services at the Colorado Judicial Branch, where she was responsible, statewide, for the probation victims program, including program implementation, policy development, legislation and training. Prior to joining probation, she was the Director of Training for Colorado Organization of Victim Assistance.  She spent 18 years in the private sector where she was the Director of Product Development for Neodata Services.

She was on the board of the Colorado Organization for Victim Assistance and was the past Co-Chair of the Colorado Forum on Community and Restorative Justice. She has been a victim advocate with the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office and a community conferencing facilitator with the Longmont Community Justice Partnership. She was a part of the Restorative Justice Team with the Lafayette Police Department. Anne has worked with the Vencentian Center on Spirituality, teaching classes in decision making for Incarcerated women in Colorado Women’s Prison.  Anne has worked extensively on high profile crime cases in Colorado, where she assisted in the coordination and delivery of services to the survivors and family members of the Oklahoma bombing, while they attended the McVeigh and Nichols trials in Denver.  She also provided assistance to victims, schools and the community during the Columbine Shooting.

One thing I could always count on Anne for is breaking new ground in the field. She was a voracious reader and was interested in creating hybrid restorative justice models, which were able to be flexible to the situation. It’s what I loved about her and is the philosophy that Restorative Solutions is based on. Rather than stick to a script, she expanded beyond the script using the many skills and formats that were available while still creating a sense of safety and mastery.

Thank you Anne for all you gave to the field and for all you gave to me. We will all miss you dearly.

(Written by Randy Compton, Principal)

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