How Do You Feel? We feel good when we are “in the flow.” We are doing what we want, and our attention is fully engaged. We are doing something that doesn’t generate anxiety from being in over our heads or that gives us a sense of ennui from being bored or adrift. We have a mission, and we are engaged in it enough to give us an overall feeling of well-being. We have enough meaning to be happy. Ennui (not enough) ——————Flow—————-Anxiety (too much) We can pursue a simple organization of our mission and objectives to help structure our attention, so we stay in the flow, often referred to as being in the zone. What is my life purpose? Mine is to inspire and equip myself and others to be happy and thrive. What is yours? What is my purpose for this period in my life? For this year, I am focused on establishing enjoyable new rhythms in my week. What is yours? What is the daily objective that will help me achieve my life purpose? One of mine is to focus on doing one thing at a time and kick the habit of multi-tasking. What is yours? Anxiety and ennui are guardrails on the path of purpose. When we take on too much, we can generate fear and anxiety. Delaying action that serves our life’s purpose will generate feelings of ennui. Finding the sweet spot between the two creates a wonderful sense of flow that comes from engaging in whatever is the meaningful activity to us. Getting on with One’s Purpose Years ago when I considered going back to graduate school, I asked my friend Dr. Steve what he thought about my idea. He asked me if, when talking to the many Ph.D.’s I had interacted with during my career, had I ever found myself not understanding what they were talking about as it related to my field? I had to admit that had never happened. He said getting that kind of degree involves a lot of work and that unless I had a burning desire for it, maybe I should skip it. Great advice! I decided I would work closely with people who had Ph.D.’s but did not need to fit the round peg of my personality into the square hole of academia. Of course, I salute my friends and colleagues who got their Ph.D. and now use it to pursue their careers and personal mission. They are accomplishing what they set out to do. Certainly, higher education degrees are necessary for many strategic and technically complex jobs. However, there are a million and one excuses we can give ourselves about waiting to make our unique contribution to the world. It’s important to tune into one’s heart and ask these questions: Am I ready right now to passionately chase my life’s dream? If so, then what is the next step? If not, why not? By tuning in to our hearts, and talking with others for perspective, we can better discern whether more education, apprenticeships, preparation, time, or something else is required before we get on with the next chapter of our lives. The world needs inspired leadership now. The more of us who get on with it, the better chance we all have of sustaining our future for the next generations to come. From the book: Enough Money, Meaning & Friends ~ By Scott C. Miller To learn more about Scott Miller, please see his website  here .

In Leading Change: An Action Plan from the World’s Foremost Expert on Business Leadership , John Kotter states that leaders must spend 70% of their time leading. The primary task is communicating the vision to stakeholders in as many ways and times as necessary. Leaders underestimate the frequency of communication needed to create a new culture. What are the elements of an effective communication of your vision? Here’s insight from Carmine Gallo’s Talk Like Ted: The 9 Public Speaking Secrets of the World’s Top Minds : Unleash the master within. Master the art of storytelling. Have a conversation. Teach me something new. Deliver jaw-dropping moments. Lighten up. Stick to the 18-minute rule. Paint a mental picture with multi-sensory experiences. Stay in your lane. I highly recommend Gallo’s book as a primer for amplifying your capacity to communicate your vision. What if you do not like public speaking? Or what if articulating a vision is not what you want to do all the time? It’s important to understand your preferences now so you can identify the role that best suits your personality. To lead, one must have clarity about his or her role along with time dedicated to play it. Learn more: Transformational Leadership: A Framework to End Poverty ~ By Scott C. Miller To learn more about Scott Miller, please see his website  here .

The call to adventure , as described by Joseph Campbell, the well-known mythologist, professor, and lecturer, is always characterized by the invitation to leave the known and enter into the unknown. It is a tale of two mindsets. For some period of time, we contemplate whether we are going to accept the call. We have one foot in the old mindset, and we try to dip the toe of our other foot into the unknown. The problem is, we can’t keep a foot in both worlds for very long. If we truly want to have the new experience, we must answer the call and put both feet into the unknown. Follow the yellow brick road, Dorothy. The call to adventure that I am personally hearing is to change my thinking about money, leaving behind the past four decades of assumptions and habits. It is time for me to let go of many of them and become my own personal scientist, finding ways to increase my sense of community and deepen my purpose. What does it feel like to volunteer more often? To really take the time to study music, art, food, photography, and history? To have more time to smell the roses? To say no to money-making opportunities that seem outside of my purpose or values? As in every call to adventure, we spend some amount of time and energy refusing it. For me this evening, I had a case of the “what-ifs.” What if I retire too soon, and we run out of money, and I have to re-enter the work world at a lower rate per hour than I can earn now? What if the agency that I have been leading for two decades can’t handle my working fewer hours and then things collapse? What if the next generation of organizational leaders do things in ways that are at odds with my approach? What if I retire and get bored and depressed with too much free time and not enough structure? Also, that’s my wife Jan’s main worry about my next chapter of life. What if I keep overworking and have less energy to address lifestyle changes I want to make with eating, exercise, connecting with others, volunteering, and studies? What if I continue working full time, the great opportunities keep coming, and I am once again stressed out with too much travel, thinking, and complexity? I shared these feelings with Jan, and she encouraged me to challenge them by asking if my concerns were real. When I wrote down my fears, the worries subsided. It is important to note that six months later after writing these worries down on paper, none of them are a concern today. While it was tempting to get back into more work that felt familiar to me, I knew I would be happier following the call to adventure into the uncharted waters of an unknown world. The happier I could be, the more likely I was to make a new and significant contribution to others. By listening to my heart rather than my head, I left the known, which is no longer in alignment for me, and entered the unknown. The tale of two mindsets ends when we finally answer the call. Assistance has come from outside of ourselves in some manner–often through one of our allies—those who tell us the truth about what they are hearing us say we want to do. As allies, they challenge the rationalizations that keep us clinging to the known. They encourage us to let go and step into the new world. Our society places an unwarranted premium on making money. Millions of ads over our lifetime have told us that we should make lots of money and buy from an endless catalog of stuff we don’t need. Our sense of reality has been largely shaped around habits of consuming things. But for those of us who are tired of chasing more money and more stuff, a new world awaits. That world is rich in meaning and friendship and guided by a more modest standard of living, a standard that requires far less money than what we think we need to achieve a better version of the American Dream. This is the new mindset that can change the world. From the book: Enough Money, Meaning & Friends ~ By Scott C. Miller To learn more about Scott Miller, please see his website  here .

Are You a Visionary, Facilitator, or Practitioner? All three roles of visionary, facilitator, and practitioner contribute to achieving the vision of ending poverty, and we each possess all three capabilities. The question is: Which one is most dominant for you, and how does that fact affect your leadership? How you communicate your vision will in part be informed by whether you identify as a visionary, facilitator, or practitioner. Based on a military model adapted from a talk by Vipin Gupta, a colleague and a research physicist at Sandia National Laboratories, here is a description of the three types: The visionary says we need to take the hill. It’s an impossible task to most, but the visionary makes the impossible seem possible . The facilitator prepares the hill to be taken. By negotiating with the visionary and translating the vision into action, she or he turns what’s possible into something probable . The practitioner implements the day-to-day details for taking the hill. By collaborating with the Facilitator, he or she makes what’s probable more predictable . Visionaries can see, often with great clarity, how the world could function after the transformation. Even in the face of many unknowns, visionaries have confidence that something new is possible. Facilitators appreciate the visionary’s vision and can see it well enough to help make it a reality. Facilitators possess patience and enthusiasm to figure out the practical steps, so they can implement the plan. It is often a disaster to put visionaries and practitioners in the same room without facilitators, because a practitioner’s questions might stop the flow of a visionary’s process. We all have habits that identify our preferences. A practitioner might say, “Just tell me what needs to be done.” A facilitator might say, “I don’t want to be in charge, but I can help organize things in the background.” A visionary might say, “Let’s do this completely differently.” Knowing what role feels best to you is important information. If you are not called to be a visionary, take heart, you can still lead a tremendous change. As a facilitator, you can seek out visionaries who need someone like you to translate their visions to others. If you are a practitioner, you can insist that visionaries and facilitators join the leadership team to play their roles. Understanding the preferences of your teammates is equally important. If you plug people into the wrong roles, you will end up with unnecessary difficulties. Take the time to learn how to read people’s interests and skills with regard to the roles of visionary, facilitator, and practitioner. Learn more: Transformational Leadership: A Framework to End Poverty ~ By Scott C. Miller To learn more about Scott Miller, please see his website  here .

“Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow ripening fruit.” – Aristotle Harvard’s Happiness Research Points to Quality Relationships An 80-year longitudinal study by Harvard revealed just how important caring relationships are for health and happiness. “Good relationships don’t just protect our bodies; they protect our brains,” Harvard researcher Robert Waldinger said in his TED talk. A University of Kansas report published in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships by associate professor of communication studies Jeffrey Hall states that it takes roughly 50 hours of time together to move from mere acquaintance to casual friend, 90 hours to go from that stage to simple “friend” status, and more than 200 hours before you can consider someone a close friend. Close friends provide us with an emotional immunization from some of the suffering in life that we might experience otherwise. A good friend can give us comfort, guidance, perspective, and resources when we need it the most. Investing some of our 112 waking hours a week in developing and sustaining close friendships is time well spent. When we have enough friends, our sense of belonging is satisfied and we are happier. A national survey of adults 45 and older conducted by AARP Research revealed that one in three people are lonely. The percent jumps to one in two if their income is less than $25,000 a year. The report also cited health studies that put loneliness in the same risk category as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. For many, this loneliness comes with social isolation—lonely people simply do not have enough structured activity in which to engage with others. We, humans, have a tendency to keep this loneliness in our lives with more than 40% reporting that their loneliness has lasted more than six years. How much friendship is enough for each of us is a very individual determination, but on average, people who reported in the AARP study that they are not lonely have 8.2 people who have been supportive in the previous year, compared to 4.3 people for the lonely group. When asked how many people they discuss matters of personal importance, the not-lonely group said 4.0, and the lonely group said 2.1. Like money, the number of good relationships we need to be happy is probably less than we might think. While the brain might be able to handle up to 150 relationships at a time, those whom we really call friends are few indeed. A study by Robin Dunbar, an evolutionary psychologist at Oxford, shows that the average person does not have time for more than five close friends at a time. If you are in a committed relationship, the number may be smaller. Her research shows that you can be happy with just one close friend. From the book: Enough Money, Meaning & Friends ~ By Scott C. Miller To learn more about Scott Miller, please see his website  here .

For more than 20 years, the Circles USA network has pursued this mission: to inspire and equip families and communities to end poverty and thrive. As a fairly new executive director joining an established organization with a respected history, I’ve been learning about the challenges and successes in our past. Now, I’m inviting you to join me in a reflective process to refresh our vision for the future. Guiding questions: What is the nature of this unique present moment — the zeitgeist — as it relates to poverty? What social, cultural, political, and economic forces are shaping how we understand poverty in this unique moment? What experiences from our work illuminate what’s most important for responding to poverty today and in the future? To probe these questions, we’re collecting stories from Circles USA members and partners. Stories are integral to the Circles method. We ask all of our Circle Leaders to consider their own stories as they develop a unique plan to escape poverty. So, gathering stories from our entire network to guide us into the future is consistent with the method. From these stories, we aim to identify new ways to support the next generation of diverse leaders committed to ending poverty. Your story can be submitted in writing or other media like video/audio recording or photo collage. To be interviewed, to submit your written or multimedia story, or to nominate someone with an important story to participate, email me at jamie@circlesusa.org . Thanks in advance for your engagement and vision! Story prompts: Participants can choose to answer any combination of questions that resonate. Here are questions about your personal journey and aspirations: How did you come to the work of poverty alleviation? Tell us about one moment that shaped your commitment to ending poverty. What breaks your heart about the issue? What motivates you to continue seeking change? Paint a picture of poverty five years from now: Is it worse or better? What has changed – any why? And these prompts ask about your relationship to Circles USA (CUSA), if relevant: How did you come to be involved in CUSA? What does the organization mean to you? What words or language would you use to describe the CUSA organization (its mission, values, culture, and leadership)? Is there an experience or story you can share that speaks to your response? How might the CUSA network expand to more fully reflect the diverse demographics of those experiencing poverty across the U.S.? And how can the CUSA Board and/or leadership better reflect that diversity? Paint a picture of CUSA five years from now. What does the organization look like? How might it be different from today? What has changed – and why? ~Jamie Haft, Executive Director, Circles USA PS: Thanks to Christy Vines of the Ideos Institute for collaborating on this strategic planning project.

Whether you are a visionary, facilitator, or practitioner, you need enough time to play your role. Each role must engage in the entire Transformational Map: articulating a vision to others, aligning with other leaders and facilitating a shared vision, helping yourself and others learn whatever is needed to achieve the vision, and building policies and program structures that will embed the vision into reality. Realistically, three to four days each week are needed to provide leadership to people through all four stages of the Transformational Map. Many leaders find themselves saddled with management responsibilities. They are busy with budgets, personnel issues, and administration. If one is spending the majority of time in management, there is no way one can lead a transformational process to change the culture of an organization, a community, or a system. Sure, some management is unavoidable, but leaders must have time to read, write, think deeply about ideas, and then discuss those ideas with others. Leadership is needed in order to create a shared vision that makes people feel they can achieve something great. Transitioning from manager to leader requires careful planning. The first step is to decide such a transition is important and then to find ways to delegate management to others. This might require re-prioritizing budgets, raising funds to hire a manager, and letting go of low-impact programs. Remember, high-impact programs change the community’s and organization’s mind-set from poverty management to poverty reduction. Which of your current programs are doing that, and which are not? What can be done to either bring programs from low impact to high, or to eliminate programs in order to free up time and resources? Learn more: Transformational Leadership: A Framework to End Poverty ~ By Scott C. Miller To learn more about Scott Miller, please see his website  here .

There can be a strong temptation for some of us to try to rescue each other from our problems. This attempt often backfires and creates resentments in our closest relationships. Circles USA warns volunteers about the Drama Triangle, also known as the Rescuer Triangle. In his book A Game Free Life (karpmandramatriangle.com), psychotherapist Dr. Stephen Karpman explains the roles and interaction of the Drama Triangle: Persecutor : Appears controlling, critical, angry, authoritative, rigid, superior. Rescuer : Needs to be needed. Enables others to remain dependent and gives them permission to fail; rescuing helps rescuers avoid facing their own issues. Victim : Appears oppressed, helpless, powerless, ashamed—finding it difficult to make decisions or solve problems. As friends, we are vulnerable to being lured into the Drama Triangle frequently. How do we know we are in it? We criticize, blame, and do our best to make someone else wrong—assigning fault. We feel we don’t have viable options or the ability to negotiate to get what we want. We rush to fix something so that someone else feels better. As Americans, we tend to be indirect in our communications, taking a more passive-aggressive approach when we are not getting what we want. In Circles USA, however, we encourage everyone to learn how to steer clear of the drama triangle and simply ask for what they want or need, knowing that if the other person can’t give it to us, we have other options for meeting our needs and wants. As a leader, I receive occasional invitations from people to jump on the Drama Triangle with them. It typically starts with someone’s feelings of disappointment, the subtext being “you are not doing what I want you to be doing, and there is something really wrong with you for not doing it the way I think you should be doing it. I am going to try to make you feel guilty enough to give me what I want.” If we don’t get onto the Drama Triangle, there is no drama. There is simply a renegotiating of expectations and moving forward under a new and updated agreement. Or, the agreement might be that we don’t go forward together but rather move in different directions. Either way, the result is healthier than making decisions and acting while still emotionally stuck in the Drama Triangle. If we make decisions because we feel attacked and shamed, then we will resent the other person in the relationship. If we decide to quit a relationship while angry or feeling victimized without communicating clearly what we want instead, we risk ending things prematurely and recreating the dynamics with someone new. We miss out on the lesson underneath what the distress is all about, a lesson that makes us stronger and more cognizant of our own unhealthy patterns. I have organized my work and personal life so that I have fewer and fewer interactions with people who use the Drama Triangle as a way of doing business with others. If we create an environment in Circles USA that reinforces direct and respectful communication and extend that into all of our professional and personal relationships, it can become second nature to simply say “no” when the invitation to play in the Drama Triangle shows up next. While stepping out of the Drama Triangle may necessitate leaving some friends behind, the relationships you consciously choose to keep will be of a higher quality, which creates more stability in the long run. From the book: Enough Money, Meaning & Friends ~ By Scott C. Miller To learn more about Scott Miller, please see his website  here .

When I woke up on January 1, 2050, I joined my large circle of friends to formally celebrate the elimination of poverty from Story County, Iowa. Let me tell you how this happened. It’s an amazing story that few believed possible 60 years ago. Once we were sure that all our children were safe and healthy, then, and only then, did we turn our attention to making our personal lives more comfortable. Schools no longer charged fees for extracurricular activities. All children now had access to computers in the home so that the playing field was level from the beginning. We helped couples decide to postpone having children. Adults made the conscious decision to slow down and take the time to really notice the extraordinary individuality of each child in our community. We decided to invest more of our time and energy in raising our children than in the pursuit of wealth. We got so interested in children that we were right there for them, in appropriately sensitive ways, on the very days when they had questions about sexuality, feelings of loss, and anxieties about being loved. We became more sophisticated about what children need from adults and made it our priority to give it to them. We watched while teen births gradually decreased, then became a thing of the past. During 2049 in Story County, no child was born to teenage parents. Adult parents in Story County learned how to value maintaining a committed relationship above all else—how to simplify life by reducing unnecessary consumption, freeing up time and energy for building and strengthening their commitment. We realized that the benefits of having a successful, lifelong partnership far outweigh the difficulties we all experience sustaining one. People stopped tolerating emotional and physical abuse—indeed, the community developed strong, assertive plans to interrupt patterns of abuse in families. Men and women realized the necessity of establishing good relationships with one another in order to stay close. People got better about asking friends for help with negotiating the challenges of staying together and raising a family. Children observed these changes and so learned how to choose compatible mates and how to communicate effectively to maintain a good, intimate relationship. The rate of family breakups fell from 50% to 6%. Employers in Story County saw the wisdom of turning away from short-term earnings, investing more time and money into building teams of steady, reliable, well-paid workers able to fully utilize their talents to provide meaningful services to the community. During the past 40 years, employers have shifted away from generating products and services of questionable value for people and the environment, moving toward a deep commitment to enrich lives, while conserving and renewing natural resources for future generations. Health insurance became universally accessible, benefiting thousands of vulnerable families in Story County. Many of the county’s older residents still remember the years of preferential medical care; younger people hear those stories with disbelief. Transportation changed as radically here as in the rest of the nation. Electric vehicles replaced the fleet of polluting cars we once had. Supplementing our clean energy supply by natural gas burning facilities is necessary less than 5% of the time. Electric bus service now extends to all area businesses and communities. The use of bicycles increased dramatically as it became safer and easier to pedal around the county on hundreds of miles of newly constructed bike paths. As generosity and making new friends became a normal way of life, carpooling became easy. People with lower incomes now don’t have to worry about maintaining a car. There are plenty of ways to get where they need to go. Those who absolutely need a car but can’t afford the price can obtain a donated vehicle that has been donated. The cost of housing decreased dramatically during the past 40 years. No one now has to spend more than 30% of take-home pay for rent. The city of Ames and Story County, through a number of bold public initiatives, paved a clear and reasonable path for anyone to move from affordable, subsidized rental situations to home ownership. Because adults focused more on children, Story County citizens enthusiastically created the best childcare support system we could. Iowa joined the rest of the states in  providing excellent and affordable childcare for all. Most people had more time to spend with their own children because of their commitment to staying together as families, and, as life became more affordable and manageable, they didn’t feel compelled to work ever longer hours. Story County developed such a powerful social safety network that it became virtually impossible for anyone to suffer poverty in isolation. These emergency financial support services have become just as important to us as our emergency police and fire services. People in our communities now know when families are in financial trouble and so are able to reach out quickly and effectively before evictions, job losses, family breakups, and a host of other destructive outcomes occur. Every community has ample emergency funding, plenty of skilled volunteers and professionals who know how to intervene, and Circles USA to ensure that people don’t fall back into poverty. A family’s financial crisis is treated as an opportunity for community members to reach out in service to a neighbor—to support a family out of isolation. We have realized that every member of the community has gifts to share, and we’ve stopped wasting human potential by marginalizing individuals and families living in poverty. When I woke up on January 1, 2050, I realized that at some point during the previous 40 years, a critical mass of people had figured out how to have enough money, enough friendship, and enough meaning in their lives to be truly happy. This core group became the catalyst necessary for making it an eventual reality for all. Story County had been transformed. Learn more: Transformational Leadership: A Framework to End Poverty ~ By Scott C. Miller To learn more about Scott Miller, please see his website  here .

We live in an age where leaders are exposed to a near-constant barrage of criticism. The media thrives on scandal and focuses its attention on what grabs the audience share rather than on what is truly worth our attention. Leaders are visible and therefore vulnerable to being attacked. Social media gives people ample opportunity to generate negative commentary. Opinion makers love controversy and will find leaders to undermine at every turn. As we watch leaders being criticized on a regular basis, it can be easy for most of us to conflate leadership with potential exposure to shame and humiliation. The great lie of our culture is that we are not good enough . Leaders, like everyone else, are susceptible to feeling inadequate because of the culture-wide conditioning that we somehow do not measure up to others. If I do not conform to society’s religious or sexual norms, there is something wrong with me. If I don’t make as much money as “they” do, I am less than they are. If I make more money than they do, then there is something better about me. Perhaps making more money will protect me from feelings of inadequacy. There are taboo subjects that generate shame, confusion, and feelings of less-than. The main topics that many of my generation were told to keep private include money, sex, politics, and religion. Yet we live in a world in which money, sex, politics, and religion are central elements of our lives. To not talk about these issues with others is to deny human nature. The most atrocious assaults that we humans make against each other come from distress patterns related to one or more of these taboo topics. The shame surrounding these topics creates toxicity within us that can compel us to shy away from leadership. In sharing views on the taboo subjects of sex, money, religion, and politics, we open ourselves to attacks from others. The more visible we are, the more exposed we can feel. If you look like you are doing really well, people who don’t feel successful might turn their feelings of jealousy into weapons. Unconsciously, we don’t want to raise our heads above the crowd just to have it chopped off. As a leader, I find myself shying away from telling people I am a member of a new-thought spiritual center. “Is that even a church?” one person asked me. Not really. It’s a center where people study and practice a spiritual pathway together, in community. We draw from the ancient wisdom that informs all of the great traditions of spiritual disciplines. Many of my peers have had brutal experiences in religious upbringings that used fear and guilt to manipulate them. And yet, being from a traditional church in which so many of the congregants don’t embrace the spiritual pathway of the church is somehow more acceptable than being a member of a congregation that embraces diversity, dismantles shame, and explores the full potential of what it means to be a human without trying to control anyone in the process. Because of my position as a national nonprofit leader with donors, volunteers, and those we serve being of different political affiliations, I also shy away from owning and sharing my political preferences. I was taught that you don’t talk about politics in public. But why? Politics affects what happens to the environment, the economy, the legal system, and almost every other important aspect of life. If I say I am affiliated with this party or that party, I invite attacks—more so now than at any other time in my life. The time has come for us all to get honest, to openly discuss the important issues of the day, and to allow leaders to be human. This shift is essential to support our most dynamic leaders who are creating a world that works for everyone. From the book: Enough Money, Meaning & Friends ~ By Scott C. Miller To learn more about Scott Miller, please see his website  here .

We’re sending this message of support and gratitude to all our Circles communities across North America. Thank you for the work you do – in times of crisis and every day – to build thriving communities. We trust each Circle location is following recommendations from the CDC about keeping community centers, workplaces, and schools safe. Below please find suggestions about using technology to stay connected to your local Circles community.* A Community of Practice Virtual Meeting will be held on Tuesday, March 17th at 1pm Pacific, 2pm Mountain, 3pm Central, 4pm Eastern: online via Go-To Meeting or by phone: #646-749-3131 with access code: 549-928-581. Please join us to explore strategies for supporting Circle Leaders and community members through this challenging time.  In solidarity, Jamie Haft, Executive Director of Circles USA * Thanks to Kamatara Johnson, Jen Nibley, Monique Proffitt, and Courtney Cowan for compiling these tips from our community’s internal discussion on Freedcamp and from other resources. Resources and Recommendations If your government or local schools have required closing for gatherings of your size, please follow their lead on canceling in-person events for their suggested timeframe. Here is the link to all 50 State Health Departments with resources for patient and healthcare providers and the recommendations from the Center for Disease Control (CDC) to learn more. Staying Connected with Your Circles Community  Please reach out by email and phone to Circles participants, including Circle Leaders and volunteers. While some of the work of Circles can be adapted to virtual meetings, please keep in mind that your community members will need more than self-guided learning. There is an emotional, financial, and physical impact of the Coronavirus/COVID-19, so reaching out personally to individuals will be meaningful as we bridge this difficult time. Additionally, your Chapter’s Services Team can survey, via Google Forms, your Circles community members to ascertain any immediate needs people may have including childcare and internet access, and then research what local services are being offered in your area. For example, here’s a survey from Albuquerque. The following suggestions are from Monique Proffitt in Circles Johnson County, IN: We are creating a Google Doc Folder with each Circle Leader’s goals and next steps with an electronic sign-in sheet and link that the Leader, their Allies, and the Coach will have access to, so individual Circles can still meet twice a month and we are able to capture attendance and progress for data.  Resource teams can meet the same way, with a link to the information needed for that meeting. We will have a six month e-learning and meeting plan. We are using Zoom and found that, with stressed systems, non-paying users have limited signal; we went ahead and paid the yearly $150 fee to secure our space. We’re loading materials needed for Circle Leader and Ally training. We can easily make it a web-based classroom, so we can continue to train. It will be a Google Doc folder with a link for each potential Circle Leader as well, with a facilitator’s folder link to access all materials needed.  If we don’t end up needing them from home, we can still use them in class with computers and be no waste. We’re working on making a mockup to drop on Freedcamp so you have a visual template to work off of. Some internet companies are offering services for people who don’t have it at no or a discounted cost. Starting March 13, 2020, Comcast is offering two months of free internet to low income families. If you have Circle Leaders who don’t have internet either for this or their children’s e-school you might want to check into that now before they also get overloaded. The mobile internet check outs at the libraries will go fast, and people might not be able to return them.

Is your Chapter seeking to engage policymakers? promote voter education and voter turnout? advance lasting change on issues like affordable housing, the Cliff Effect, reliable transportation, and more? This webinar is for you! Through Circles USA, Chapters and Poverty Reduction Labs are advancing systemic change on key issues. This is the Big View – and it creates a foundation to develop and promote a shared anti-poverty agenda. In an election year like 2020, we have a unique opportunity to scale-up Big View efforts across the country and raise visibility for our mission of ending poverty. The webinar will feature guest facilitator Amy Basken, a seasoned legislative advocate who serves as Director of Programs at the Pediatric Congenital Heart Association. Amy also volunteers with Circles Sauk Prairie, WI. Amy’s webinar presentation will cover the basics of civic engagement, including: how a bill becomes a law; which policymakers to contact; tips for in-person and virtual communication with officials; opportunities during an election year; and the importance of sharing your stories with those in a position to make a change. Watch the webinar here.