By Christopher Edmunds

The Selma Times-Journal

 

A group of nearly 100 community leaders gathered at Strudivant Hall Thursday evening to discuss how to break the cycle of poverty in Dallas County.

Picnic on the Green served as a chance for the Dallas County Family Resource Center to make its case for the Circles of Transformation program.

The Circles of Transformation model started in 2000 as a way for communities to address poverty by building relationships between established community leaders and low-income families who want to break the cycle of poverty.

Dr. Laurel Blackwell, Circles of Transformation coordinator and the guest speaker for Picnic on the Green, said relationships are invaluable to those in need.

“People in poverty lack more than financial resources,” Blackwell said. “They lack relationships that can help them and people who are willing to invest in their lives.”

Blackwell discussed the three stages required to achieve economic stability, including crisis management, education and advancement.

In the Circles program, needy invidiuals are paired with trained middle-to-high-income community volunteers, called Circle Allies, who support them as they work to improve their situation.

Dallas County Family Resource Center  director Donna Long of the, said the national program was brought to Dallas County because it fit well.

“In the process of seeing clients at the Family Resource Center, we saw that there was a need,” Long said. “Circles of Transformation is like a hand fitting in a glove because it suits our needs in our area.”

Long said Selma and Dallas County suffer from a certain type of poverty.

“We suffer from a poverty of hope,” she said. “People have no hope for the future because they feel like they’re stuck in a cycle. We believe that Circles of Transformation will give us what we need to help people break that cycle.”

District Judge Bob Armstrong serves as the Community Champion for the Circles program in Dallas County. He said hope has a tangible effect on a community.

“Hope creates courage, action, and perseverance. This program helps to build that hope,” Armstrong said.

While Dallas County is about halfway through the process of becoming an official site for the Circles of Transformation program, Long said the Family Resource Center will continue working to achieve that goal.

“In the fall, we are hoping to start some training classes for allies, and then eventually some circle leaders,” Long said. “We’ll start small with just a few individuals and work up over time so we can serve up to 25 individuals or families at a time, but it takes two or three volunteers for each person served.”