Big View Innovations: A Conversation with Ana Hurley of Circles NWA
- Circles USA
- May 5
- 7 min read
Circles NWA (Northwest Arkansas) is a community-driven program that works to increase upward mobility for individuals and families in poverty in Northwest Arkansas. Based on the national Circles USA model, the Circles program builds intentional relationships (social capital) across socioeconomic lines that help open up long-term pathways for economic mobility and self sufficiency. [Source]
We recently had the joy of speaking with Ana Hurley, a key staff member at Circles NWA, about their chapter’s big plans for the Big View—including a groundbreaking new leadership institute for graduates of the Circles program.
Hi, Ana! Tell us about your role with Circles NWA and what you do there.
My role is Big View Director, and I've been with Circles for about a year and a half. It's really been about building out the Big View: What are the pieces of that, and how can we have the biggest impact in our community to bring people in and really help see “the big view”? Part of that is our monthly Big View events within our Circles community. And then part of it is hosting these larger-scale community events that bring in people from outside our Circles community—our Becoming Visible series. And that essentially is helping our community members have something become visible to them that otherwise, in their daily lives, they might not see at all… a reality that they're maybe not witnessing, or [understanding] different socioeconomic backigrounds.
What is the Northwest Arkansas chapter up to lately?
We had two Circle Leaders, Thelishia C. and Julie S., go to Washington D.C. in partnership with Bread for the World. Last year one of our Congress members, Steve Womack, had a [public] meeting, and someone from our local food bank who works with Bread for the World got in touch and asked if anyone in Circles had any stories of food insecurity, or the ways that the Child Tax Credit (CTC) had benefited them. We asked some of our Circle Leaders if anyone would like to speak on that, and Julie wanted to. So she made a video that we sent into his office [to air] during this meeting. One year later, she was invited to go to D.C. to share her story at the Bread for the World’s launch of their new initiative called Nourish the Future Campaign. And so she went to share her story, and along with her is her best friend Thelishia C., who's also a graduated Circle Leader and is now in the VOIS program— I'll tell you more about in a moment.
While they were there, they were able to go to Senator Tom Cotton's office, to John Boozman’s, and to Steve Womack’s, and share their stories about how the Child Tax Credit had really benefited them. It was the first time flying for Thelishia C., first time leaving her children overnight. So [this was] a really big deal. And definitely the first time speaking on a panel for Julie…in front of hundreds of people. In fact, the Zoom [room] was full. You couldn't even get in! So there were, I think, 1,500-plus people watching. And yes, even I signed in too late and couldn't get in the Zoom. Eventually they sent out a YouTube link where you could watch from YouTube.
It's just really exciting to see our Circle Leaders use their voices to share their stories and their experiences so that more people can have first-hand accounting of what it's like for the ALICE demographic…some of the challenges they face and some of the ways that systems like the CTC can benefit people. Thelishia C., for example—she recently wrote and published her first letter to the editor of our local newspaper. In it, she talks about how the CTC allowed her to go back to full-time work. I think that's really powerful. Often the conversation is “How do we get people into full time work?” And sometimes a little extra help means [they can] afford to get back to work.
That’s an incredible piece of Big View organizing for Julie and Thelishia—for all of Circles NWA, really! What Big View projects are your chapter members working on these days?
Well, Julie and Thelishia have had opportunities since then to continue to use their voice. They were invited to speak on another panel with Bread for the World. And Thelishia is in our VOIS Institute program that I mentioned—the most recent project we're launching for the Circle Leader journey.
VOIS stands for Voices of Influence and Storytelling. It's a program that our parent nonprofit and Circles host, Innovative Poverty Solutions, has launched. It’s starting as a program for graduates of the Circles program who are interested in taking a step into community leadership and advocacy. We plan for VOIS to be a multi-year program and we're currently in the first pilot of it. The pilot has focused on offering trainings on advocacy, crafting public narrative, public speaking, self-care for leaders, and curating opportunities for Fellows to publicly use their voice and influence. We took a trip to the Capitol in Little Rock to see our legislative sessions and to teach how to find your legislators' contact information, how to go about introducing yourself, talking to your legislators about issues you care about, and really building out partnerships with other organizations in our community.
To me, one of the long term visions is that we will be able to create a group of storytellers who are able to confidently show up and tell their story. We continue to hear from advocacy organizations that nothing's more powerful than a story directly from someone who's experienced something. But oftentimes the people who are running the organizations aren't the people who have the stories, the first-hand experience. They don't cultivate storytellers. And so we see a really big opportunity to cultivate storytellers—so, for example, if there's a bill going through on benefits cliffs, organizations and/or the legislators who are working on that can contact the VOIS Institute and say, “Do you have anyone that would like to speak on the way benefit cliffs have affected them?”
How is the VOIS Institute scaling up for the future? Will it involve community members beyond Circles NWA members at some point?
VOIS is currently for Circle Leader graduates. But we host our Big View events—including several that are community wide—trying to get as many community members outside of Circles and across our region to come in, to essentially hear the stories of our Circle Leaders. We hosted one first on the Cliff Effect. And we've hosted one on housing with several hundred people in attendance. At first, our Circle Leaders were like, “I'm not going to get up on stage and tell my story… No way, no how!” We continued to talk to them about how important it is for people to hear and really understand the stories, to understand the life of a full-time working, single mother who's running into these barriers, or whatever the story may be. Once they get up on stage and they realize how powerful their voice is, there's two things that happen. One, they wish they had more time to prepare. And two, they want to do more of it. And so we realized we [should] create a program for the graduates, to keep them involved and give them that opportunity to practice and then do more of it. That's essentially why we started the VOIS Institute. We developed the curriculum by hosting a focus group with graduates of our Circles program to find out what they want in a program like this. It's still in the early, early phases. We started in September and the first cohort is about to work on what we're calling their Capstone Projects, where they can work together or as individuals on an advocacy project of their own.
We see Circles as the program that helps Circle Leaders become the leaders in their own lives; this is the program that helps you become a leader in the community.
We see Circles as the program that helps Circle Leaders become the leaders in their own lives; this is the program that helps you become a leader in the community. Taking that step, the Circle Leaders are with us for 18 months, really focusing on that leadership of self. And then, yeah, coming in and saying, “Okay, I’m finding that leadership in self. Now I want to bring that to the community and really amplify my voice so that other people can learn from my experiences.”
Thanks so much for this update, Ana. Before we go, wIll you say a little more about why it’s crucial for elected officials and other community members to hear first-voice stories, not just political opinions or arguments?
I think a story grounds people in reality and in an experience that can't be denied. One thing that we tell our fellows and our Circle Leaders is, you never have to be nervous or feel like you're going to forget what you're saying because this is your story. You're not putting on any falsities, you're not making any reaches. You're telling your story, and you're expressing the way that it happened to you in a way that you're comfortable with. It's something that can't be denied and can't be taken away from someone.
Sometimes an opinion can be based on made-up ideas in someone's head about a “reality” based on stereotypes, things they've seen in the media [or] heard passed down, whatever it might be. An opinion isn't necessarily grounded in the experience of someone first-hand. But regardless of whether or not someone likes a story, the story is real.
To learn more about Circles NWA’s Big View advocacy and presenting, check out Bread for the World's Nourish Our Future Launch video on YouTube or read their article Bread for the World Launches “Nourish Our Future” Campaign Focused on Child Hunger with Bipartisan Support on Capitol Hill
For more info on Circles NWA as a national “anchor chapter,” watch their YouTube video Building Community to End Poverty.
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