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     (March 5, 2010) -- The Circles campaign to lift people from generational poverty to earning a sustainable income sounds almost too simple: Make a plan and find allies to help you attain your goal.
     Yet this deceptively simple program now reaches 27 states and Ontario, Canada -- and is growing.
     Scott Miller, a native of Albuquerque, N.M., was in Wadesboro March 4 to explain why and how it works. Miller is CEO of Move the Mountain Leadership Center, co-founded in 1992 by Miller and Gary Stokes. In 2009, the General Board of Global Ministries for the United Methodist Church designated Circles as it pilot ministry to the poor in the U.S. Wilma Dunbar is a missionary sent by the Board to Wadesboro to help start the Circles program in Anson County. Wilkesboro and Yadkinsville have also begun Circles training.
     Miller said he hoped to see 1,000 Circles programs in North Carolina in the next five years.
The costs of poverty
     Miller said that $500 billion is spent annually to raise children in poverty, or $38,000 per child. "If we raise one family with two children from poverty, we save $75,000 a year," he said.
     Additionally, "$5,500 is what it takes to train an employee." Businesses that invested in Circles training saw their turnover costs improve by 95 percent. Miller mentioned one company that invested in childcare and transportation -- two of the most common needs for people in poverty -- for its employees and saw a significant drop in lost hours, saving the company more money than was spent.
     The program is spreading because it works. The Move the Mountain Website www.movethemountain.org reports that for every $1 spent on the program, $2 in welfare and food stamp subsidies was returned to the state, and $4 to the community as new earned income.
     In the most recent analysis by Move the Mountain, the first group of 33 families to complete Getting Ahead and six months of Circles showed an 88% increase in earned income, 54% of the Circle Leaders indicated that they had obtained a better paying job, a 30% decrease in use of welfare benefits and a 56% increase in assets. The median income rose from $637/month to $1,200, average assets went from $604 to $941, and welfare benefits dropped from $436/month to $306/month.
     Moreover, there was a 125 percent increase in “people in my life I can count on” and the average number of “friends I can count on” went from four to nine.
Who are the "Allies?"
     The first Getting Ahead (Getting Ahead in a Just-Gettin'-by-World) began at First United Methodist Church Oct. 29, 2009, and the 15 members will graduate in April. Members learned to identify the root causes of poverty and the hidden rules that keep them from getting ahead. They assessed their resources and learned what community resources are available. During the next few weeks, they will build their individual plans for getting ahead.
     Allies are needed to help them attain their goals. These are people in the middle or upper classes who are willing to share their knowledge and expertise with the graduates, or Circle Leaders. Ideally, each Circle Leader will have three-four allies he or she can call on for support.
     Rev. Rob Rollins, who has spearheaded the movment in Anson County, told those who attended the meeting that being an Ally meant spending from four-to-eight hours a month with their Circle Leader, some of which is time spent at a monthly group meeting. The commitment is for 18 months, which has been shown to be the length of time a person needs support before becoming completely self-sufficient. Miller added that friendships between Allies and Circle Leaders sometimes last for years.
     Jeff Boothby, a member of the Guiding Coalition, said that work prevents him from attending meetings, but that he would still like to be an Ally. "For example, if someone needed a ride to work and let me know the night before, I could help," he said.
     Miller said the program needs ad hoc Allies."One man I know only fixes toilets in trailers," he said. "Don't do anything you don't want to do. Allies should take it seriously and it's okay if you don't feel a fit. Know your limitations."
     Allies should be a friend first and a guide second. "Wait to be asked," he said.
     Miller said that the Circle Leaders need to develop new relationships in order to get ahead; and community leaders need to build relationships with people in poverty to move the county to the next place.
     Miller demonstrated how Allies might work with Circle Leaders by asking for volunteers. Brandy Heistand and Shequilla Lisenby of the Getting Ahead class, Elizabeth Short, a middle school teacher, and Rollins came forward.
     Heistand said that her goal was getting an education, but that her children sometimes demanded the attention she needed for her studies. "I need someone to watch them nights when I have a test the next day," she said. The others discussed how this need could be met.
     Heistand switched roles and became an Ally when Lisenby said she was having trouble furnishing her apartment. "I didn't know you had to pay money and be a member to buy something at an auction," she said. The Allies seemed surprised at this, and offered other ways of obtaining good, used furniture without paying a lot of money. "I know an interior decorator," Rollins joked. "Can I bring her by?"
     After the demonstration, about a dozen people in the audience raised their hands when Rollins asked who might like to become an Ally.
     "When you give people an opportunity to give, you're giving them a gift," Miller said.
     Ally training will begin March 18. For more information or to volunteer, call Dunbar at 704-994-2333 or e-mail circleswilma@yahoo.com