POVERTY ALLEVIATION SYSTEMS

Circles USA continues to work with founder Scott Miller on innovative pilot projects encompassed within a Poverty Alleviation System (PAS). New chapters have emerged from PAS communities along with two major PAS pilots in Tennessee and Maryland.

Circles USA consulted in 2021 with the Upper Cumberland Human Resource Agency (UCHRA) to apply for Tennessee Opportunity Act planning grant, using the Circles model and poverty alleviation innovations at the heart of their proposal. In 2022, the Upper Cumberland collaborative Empower UC—which includes Circles as a partner—was awarded $25 million in

TANF Opportunity Act funds to implement its plan. This huge win for the region’s economy lays the foundation for a Circles multi-chapter drop-in for their high poverty 14-county region; it also creates an opportunity for future coalition-building across the nation.

2022 also saw the the West Maryland Workforce Development Consortium contract $1 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to Community Action Council to build a PAS for Washington County, Maryland. Washington County residents have begun a Circles pilot and will work closely with Circles USA to adapt it to reflect their communities’ diverse needs.

Scott Miller and his team are leading the research and development aspect of this project as their chapter grows into a full expression of a Poverty Alleviation System.

Circles USA continues to foster intentional relationships with missionaligned people and organizations. In recent years, we’ve reported on new collaborations with Bread for the World, a non-partisan, faith-based advocacy organization focused on ending hunger, whose Racial Wealth Gap Experiential has become an integral part of our staff training; and Ideos Institute, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the work of Empathic Intelligence (MQ) and its application to empathy-based reconciliation, conflict transformation, and redemptive leadership. In addition to piloting an empathy-based dialogue program with Circles Troup County in LaGrange, Georgia, Circles USA Executive Director Kamatara Johnson presented at Ideos’ 2022 National Day of Dialogue. Phase two of the Ideos pilot will continue in 2023, offering 10 chapters Big View leadership training in alignment with Ideos best practices.

Additionally, CUSA continues its collaborations with Leap Fund and the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta—partners whose tools and practices have deepened our thinking and expanded our approach to poverty alleviation. Both organizations offer cliff effect tools that offer critical information when our Circle Leaders have decisions to make about future employment opportunities or raises. Chapters are using this information as well to create future-forward action plans with Circle Leaders to get to the other side of the cliff.

Founder and chief innovator Scott Miller remains central to our organization’s coalition-building. His agency Scott C Miller Consulting has become a key partner for Circles USA: In 2022, his latest vision for poverty alleviation systems yielded a $25 million TANF Opportunity Act grant for Circles partners in the Upper Cumberland region of Tennessee. (See Poverty Alleviation Systems, page 26.)