Circles of Opelika 2020

Who are we?

Circles of Opelika is a program of the Envision Opelika Foundation. As a result of, a task force comprised of local educators, social service agencies, and community members Circles was identified. Circles was found to be a sustainable program that would assist in reducing the number of families living in poverty in our community, which is not presently offered.

Circles® is a national relationship-based movement to help communities become educated about the causes of poverty and the barriers that keep people in poverty and directly helps individuals and families living in poverty to achieve self-sufficiency. Circles is in more than 70 communities throughout the U.S. and Canada (www.circlesusa.org).

Circles Opelika began in December 2018, and weekly group beginning in the summer of 2019.  The meetings were initially held at the Southside Center for the Arts (1103 Glenn St.) and effective, Fall of 2019, the meetings were held at Southern Union State Community College.  This move strengthened our partnership with SUSCC and the resources they have made available to the program.  The goal of Circles is to employ long-term solutions versus short-term fixes to lead to economic stability and sustainability for families in Opelika.  We have great community partners that will continue to assist in this program as it grows and evolves.

Our Project

Your gift will support the Helping Hands Loan Program.  The Helping Hands Loan, is an emergency loan program that will be available to Circle Leaders at low to no interest and to Circle Leaders that 1. ) have completed the 12- week training  2) Attends 85% of the weekly meetings held on Thursday evenings. 3) Have found themselves in a monetary bind and cannot easily find the resources elsewhere without putting themselves in a more dire financial strain such as a “payday loan”.   We will have a panel of individuals that are familiar with the program and the leaders to assist in determining eligibility.  Eligible candidates cannot receive funds more than once every 2 years for the same type expense.  Loan recipients are only eligible to receive funding once per year for the same type of expense.

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