Study Circles Q & A

Since some of you were unable to come to the meeting on Tuesday and some of you who did had questions about Study Circles, Lindsy and Paula put together a great explanation of the hows and whys.

"Study circles will help us talk about the kind of community we want to live in. No community is doing well where there is poverty. If we work on reducing poverty, we can have a better community. And, by working on making our community better, we can help reduce poverty. These two important tasks go hand in hand.

Study circles will work for us because:

• People care. They want to make things better.
• Problems like poverty call for many solutions.
• It takes people from all parts of the community to solve our problem.
• When we all join in, we all win.
• When we talk face to face, we get to know each other. Trust builds. We can come up with new ideas and plans.

What are Study Circles?

• Many circles will
  meet at the same time.
• 8 to 12 people will be in each circle. They will represent the diversity of our community.
• Circles will meet together for five two-hour sessions. The first three sessions focus on getting to know each other and getting to know the problem. The last two sessions focus on finding solutions and developing an action plan to reduce poverty.
• After the fifth meeting, all of the circles will gather together for an action forum. Each circle will present its action plan to reduce poverty in our community.
• Each circle will use a guide book. Two facilitators will lead each group circle.

Why is VISIONS sponsoring study circles?

• This approach has been used all over the United States in communities large and small to successfully address the issue of poverty.
• We want the whole community to be a part of the solution to a problem that impacts the whole community.
• We want realistic actionable
  community-driven strategies for our future work to reduce poverty.
  
• In order to help ensure change, we need community investment in the strategies (identified during the action forum) that will be presented in a written proposal to the duPont Fund for implementation and funding."

I've added two videos available on YouTube to give you some idea of what people in Montana who used this process thought about it. After you listen to them, you'll have a better idea of the value of getting a wide diversity of input in this planning process.

Horizons Across Montana, Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6MkBJaWHic

Horizons Across Montana, Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBWhKkB4-Co&feature=related