The National Circles™ Campaign is an initiative that engages communities in joining with low-income families to find paths out of poverty. The Campaign, in its pilot phase, plans to join with 50 communities to support 1000 families out of poverty and to document the challenges and victories of this process. The stories and research from this initiative will be used to inspire and equip national, state, and community leaders to expand their local and national intention and capacity for reducing and, eventually, eliminating poverty. Based on the results, leaders from across the nation can design a new, coherent, and powerful social contract between hard-working families, local communities, and government.  The new contract can accelerate solutions to reducing and ending poverty in the United States.

The National Circles™ Campaign’s three objectives are:

• Assist 1,000 families completely out of poverty.
• Carefully document the steps taken to help them out of poverty and any barriers encountered.
• Assist local, state and national leaders in developing a new social contract that outlines what a community, state, and nation can and should do to assure that hard-working families thrive.

In November of 2006 Clark County Bridges Out of Poverty Steering Committee representatives attended the Bridges Institute and were introduced to Move the Mountain and the Circles™ Champaign.  In January 2007, Think Tank introduced the Campaign to the Clark County community and began to build a Guiding Coalition through the partnership and generous support of the Clark County Department of Job and Family Services.

What is a Circle?

A Circle is a supportive, intentional, reciprocal, befriending relationship made up of one Circle Leader who is living in poverty and two to five Circles Allies who usually are from middle class.   A Circle typically meets once or twice a month to build friendships and to work on the Circle Leader’s dreams, plans, and goals.

Each Thursday, the Circles Community meets at Covenant Presbyterian Church at 5:30 p.m. for a weekly meal and meeting.  For more information about Clark County Circles contact Heather Seelig at heather@thinktank-inc.org or (937) 727-9115.

For more information on the National Campaign, please contact Scott Miller, CEO Move the Mountain at 515-232-2540 or visit www.movethemountain.org