Circles™

New Opportunities Inc. is proud to lead this community-wide initiative in Waterbury, Meriden and Torrington. Circles™ is an intentional way for people to build relationships across class and race lines to end poverty in their communities.

The CRISIS

Connecticut has the highest per capita income in the United States and a median household income that far exceeds many states. Despite this, there continues to exist a huge gap between wealth and poverty within Connecticut.

• The poverty rate in Waterbury is 16% compared to 7.9% in the rest of the state
• 33.4% of children under 18 live in families with incomes less than the federal poverty rate
• The housing wage in Waterbury is $15.87. If working a minimum wage job, a worker must work 86 hours a week in order to afford a 1-2 bedroom apartment; spending only 30% of their income on housing.
• In Waterbury, 66.1% of children are eligible for free/ reduced lunch compared to the state average of 26.9%

The SOLUTION

Circles™ is a high impact strategy that:

• Changes the mind-set of a community so it wants to end poverty
• Changes goals, policies, and approaches to end poverty
• Empowers people in poverty to help solve community problems while transitioning out of poverty themselves

Community Support

Circles needs community support in many ways:

• Allies: Circle Allies are community members who want to be in a supportive, intentional, befriending relationship with an individual or family working to get out of poverty.
• Circle Allies work with the Circle Leader to figure out how to accomplish her or his plan and do what makes sense and what brings joy to the relationship.
• Circle Allies are trained in Bridges out of Poverty as a way to work with Circle Leaders in supporting their plans to get out of poverty
• Circle Allies are committed to meet with their circle at least once a month and attend 1 community meeting per month for a minimum of 18 months.

Goods and Services:

Circles needs resources in addition to people. We need meeting space, food for community meals, child care, donations of clothing and household items for those in need, donated cars and money for a revolving loan fund.

Community involvement is key to making circles work!

To learn more about how you can get involved in this initiative, contact Monica Fore or Lacey Byrne in Waterbury at (203) 575-4331, Carey Beisel in Meriden at (203) 235-0278 or Rachael Ashak in Torrington at (860) 482-9749.