What is the Circles Campaign?

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.

Currently, there are 8 active Circles; including 10 adult Circle Leaders, 17 children and 17 Allies.  Each Thursday, the Circles Community meets at St. John's Missionary Baptist Church for a weekly meal and meeting. The 2008 goal for the Clark County Circles Campaign is to engage 25 + families and 50+ allies, resulting in increased stability and prosperity for these Clark County families.  

Think Tank is the lead agency for the local campaign, however, a Clark County Guiding Coalition designs the local community-based Circles™ initiative. The Guiding Coalition is a representative group that includes people from all economic classes and races who are committed to building their community and ending poverty. The Guiding Coalition is responsible for Circles implementation and assures it is a high-impact strategy that changes the mind set of the community. Guiding Coalition members attend an orientation on the Circles™ model and a workshop on Bridges out of Poverty constructs.

The National Circles™ Campaign is led by a National Guiding Coalition that is made up of experts in the anti-poverty field, people in poverty, people of color, people from many disciplines, and people from nationally recognized anti-poverty organizations including:

• Move the Mountain Leadership Center
• aha! Process, Inc.
• Wider Opportunities for Women
• The Charitable Giving Resource Center
• The Wilder Research Center.

Click Here for more information on the Circle's Campaign or contact Heather Seelig at 937-727-9115 or at heather@thinktank-inc.org  

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