A Time-Tested Strategy and Model
A Wealth of Training & Materials
Local Chapters, National Network
Circles USA is a national nonprofit that partners with local organizations—including government agencies, nonprofits, and faith-based communities like yours—to deepen and expand your impact. For over 25 years, we’ve recognized the gap between crisis intervention and lasting economic self-sufficiency. Our model, materials, and coaching help you bridge that gap by engaging community volunteers to walk alongside individuals until they overcome poverty permanently. We also promote leadership development, as participants become advocates who dismantle the barriers that keep people in poverty. It’s a comprehensive community approach that supports the entire family.
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You assess your readiness.
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Circles trains your team.
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Together, we launch a Circles chapter.
Circles USA is a 501(c)3 nonprofit that works at national and local levels to reduce poverty.
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Relationships are the core of what Circles does. A Circles chapter gathers people who are motivated to move out of poverty and matches them with middle- and high-income volunteers who support, connect, and encourage them on their journey.
Through training and weekly meetings, participants in economic hardship (or “Circle Leaders”) build intentional and productive friendships with volunteers (called “Allies”). Over time, these relationships equip Circle Leaders and their families to climb out of poverty and achieve financial stability. Likewise, Allies gain critical knowledge and empathy for people experiencing poverty in the U.S. The opportunities and obstacles Circles members encounter are shared with their larger community, so that successes can be celebrated and barriers to prosperity broken down.
Circles USA provides training and support to launch new Circles chapters. As chapters grow, we offer ongoing coaching, best practices, access to a learning library, and a national community of practice. We also provide resources to expand and serve multiple locations, enabling them to reach diverse populations across communities nationwide.
As part of our Big View Policy Platform, Circles USA specially assists local chapters in identifying, bridging, and eliminating the Cliff Effect. This phenomenon (also known as a “benefits cliff”) happens when a raise or other income gain triggers the loss of benefits worth more than the wage increase. Our multi-pronged approach supports workers facing the Cliff and offers alternatives to employers and policy makers hoping to mitigate its effects.
Our goal: to spark a reimagining of our communities where economic mobility is possible for all people.
Learn More About Circles
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Impact Reports
Circles reports chapter results at individual and community levels. Participants steadily grow skills and income, decrease dependence on public assistance, and expande resources and support networks. At the community and national levels, Circles USA connects diverse peoples across class lines and ideology, changes attitudes about poverty, and contributes to policy change.
Case Studies
As Circles USA enters our 26th year of building community to end poverty, our leadership (staff, board, and advisory council) use these project profiles and data to:
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inform strategic planning,
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improve our model, and
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create materials that better support Circle Leaders, Allies, volunteers, and other participants who are working towards social and economic justice in our network.
Lives Transformed
Storytelling matters. The Circles USA model supports people’s efforts to deepen and expand what they think is possible: for themselves, their families, and their communities. As Circle Leaders reach milestones in their journeys toward financial stability, we document their achievements as “Lives Transformed” stories to highlight joy and hope as valuable tools in combating poverty.
Big View
Circles USA’s Big View Platform frames policy recommendations within the local, state, and national scope. This Platform addresses six issues our chapters flagged as high priority:
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Quality jobs
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The Cliff Effect
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Broadband access
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Healthcare
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Housing
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Transportation
It also emphasizes Circles USA’s commitment to addressing the structural biases that unjustly affect people of color and other historically marginalized communities. These six issues are more relevant today than ever before. Circles chapters across the nation deepened and expanded their Big View work this year, tackling systemic change with collective knowledge drawn from government, schools, nonprofits, businesses, and philanthropies.