The Clinton School’s Center on Community Philanthropy and the Mid Delta Community Consortium kicked off a campaign last week to eliminate poverty in the Arkansas Delta by pairing low-income families with middle- and upper-income families that can connect them to resources and support.
Modeled on the national Circles initiative, the Delta Circles Campaign gathered representatives from local businesses and organizations for a two-day training session at the Delta Area Health Education Center in Helena-West Helena.
Nationally recognized Circles campaign trainer Gina Elias encouraged the community to get involved in the program and illustrated the campaign’s model that seeks to equip individuals in poverty with new skills and mindsets to become successful.
The Circles methodology has proven effective in more than 23 states, and its inception in the Arkansas Delta represents a new era in the fight against poverty, said Charlotte L. Williams, director of the Center on Community Philanthropy.
“The Delta Circles campaign is a model program of community philanthropy because it utilizes resources already present in the community to bring people out of poverty,” Williams said. “By working together, individuals and organizations can lift up the entire community.”
Roughly 50 people representing area businesses, churches and nonprofits attended the training session. Helena-West Helena native Patricia Ashanti, director of Anderson Williams Consulting, spearheaded the event.
A coalition of organizations helped host the event including the Delta Area Health Education Center, Southern Bancorp Community Partners, the Helena-West Helena School District, Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, the Arkansas Community Foundation, Phillips Community College of the University of Arkansas and the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation.
For more information on this event or the Delta Circles Campaign, contact Sam O’Bryant, assistant director at the Clinton School Center on Community Philanthropy at sobryant@clintonschool.uasys.edu, or Patricia Ashanti at Patricia.Ashanti@gmail.com.
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