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 come 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 support chapters that are ready to expand into serving multiple locations, reaching more diverse populations across their communities.
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
The Big View prioritizes systems change work to remove the barriers keeping people in poverty. Research consistently shows that poverty alleviation efforts are most effective when led by those with lived experience of economic challenges, therefore Circles is committed to supporting and resourcing Circle Leaders as they drive systemic change, advancing poverty eradication goals on the local, regional, and national levels.
