Press Release
Circles Carbon County needs your support.
It only takes a couple of hours per month to make a drastic difference in someone’s life. Circles Carbon County needs you to be the difference by becoming a volunteer. Circles is an innovative, community-based approach to solving poverty.
We believe that responsibility for both poverty and prosperity rests not only in the hands of individuals, but also with societies, institutions, organizations and communities. Carbon County has amazing community support and hopes to end poverty once and for all. The only thing that is missing are strong bridges between these parts. We build those bridges by nurturing intentional friendships, providing education opportunities and advocating for change. Our approach is a progressive model grounded in research that shows families must have strong social capital and connections (relationships and resources) with their communities in order to improve their economic situation and overall quality of life in their neighborhoods.
Intentional Friendships
The heart of Circles is the Matched Circle, an intentional long-term friendship between a Circle Leader (a motivated person experiencing poverty) and two Allies (financially stable persons leveraging their social capital to support the goals of their Circle Leaders). From this Circle, and as a result of our weekly dinners and meetings, relationships ripple: among Circle Leaders, Allies, volunteers, children, and between Matched Circles, organizational partnerships and throughout the community.
Education Opportunities
At our weekly meetings after dinner, Circle Leaders meet with their Allies, learn new skills or connect with resources that will help them achieve their goals for getting out of poverty. Circles volunteers learn about the realities of poverty through monthly meetings, workshops and other educational events, and share that knowledge with community partners, businesses, nonprofit organizations and faith-based communities.
Advocacy
Advocacy happens by identifying and advocating to solve systemic barriers within our community that prevents an individual from moving out of poverty. Once we have identified systemic barriers to overcoming poverty, we advocate for changes in policies, procedures and structures, assisting with community-wide mindset change.
For more information or to become a volunteer, please contact:
Julie Rosier
435-613-0065
jwalker@seualg.utah.gov