Circles Out of Poverty

The Circles® Campaign is a strategy to help those in poverty transform their lives to be more stable and self-sufficient. Circles partners volunteers and community leaders with families wanting to make the journey out of poverty. Operating in communities around the country, each Circles® initiative consists of families working to get out of poverty and several middle and upper income Allies who befriend them and lend support. The family is the Circle Leader, setting direction for activities. With the help and friendship of their allies, each family sets and achieves goals unique to their own needs.

Rather than targeting a surface need of at-risk communities such as housing or food provision, Circles® seeks to expand social capital by fostering relationships across racial and economic lines. It engages the community as a whole and encourages growth from people of all financial classes. Circles® is designed to assist families in creating their own personal paths out of poverty while at the same time expanding opportunities, connections and eliminating barriers in the community that make it difficult for families to thrive.

Center Avenue UMC is the community catalyst for the Circles Initiative in Pitcairn. We believe that we are called to minister to our immediate community. Because our community is badly affected by poverty, we cannot turn our backs. Jesus calls us to tend to the least and the lost; in this case, those who are need of the kind of help Circles provides to help those motivated to move out of poverty into a more stable way of life.