Community Circles
Creating Community Circles – brand new online course
Learn how to set up a community circle in your area
Hosted on Teachable – world famous platform
New Training Course: Creating Community Circles available in the online store.
Step by step guide to understanding values and background to this way of working. Features step by step training in how to run a Community Circle in your local community. Uses live footage of famous Nottingham Community Circle.
Self paced learning
Learn how to mobilise peer support to impact on challenging behaviour
What are Community Circles?
Download ‘What are we learning about creating community circles’ here.
The purpose of community circles is to bring people from a local community together to share their skills, talents, gifts and resources. This idea is based upon the premise that ALL of us need three things in our lives to make us happy and fulfilled: these are money, friendship and meaning. We believe that everyone needs community, everyone needs to be heard and everyone needs to have fun.
Community Circles are based upon reciprocity and the assumption that EVERYONE has both gifts and needs – whether these are labelled or not. The circles adopt the fundamental value of inclusion that ‘all means all’, no one is excluded from community circles, instead the circle members work out how to include everyone equally and safely.
A community circle is made up of participants and allies from the local community. The meeting starts with everyone sharing food and conversations. Next the group comes together in a circle so that everyone can see each other and shares what is good and new in their lives, everyone gets a turn to be listened to. ‘New and Good’ breaks the habit of thinking about and acting from what’s wrong, it is an exercise of giving and receiving attention with one another and it also provides a strong foundation of strengths from which we can think about and tackle difficulties. The group is then asked the question what do they want, need or have to offer.
Community circles provide a great foundation or starting point from which to explore connections, build relationships, locate resources and share skills. These circles will be a particularly important resource for Brokers and the people that they work for. They provide a safe forum in which people can meet and friendships can start, a natural reservoir of people and relationships where people can be invited to offer their time and capacity.
To be successful we have to start from a belief in inclusion. A belief that:
- we are all born ‘in’
- all means all
- everyone needs to belong
- everyone is ready
- everyone needs support
- everyone can communicate
- everyone can contribute
- together we’re better.
Any questions please e-mail us: inclusive.solutions@me.com.
Inspired by ‘Beyond Welfare’ – Inclusive Solutions have begun seeding and growing community circles in the Nottingham area. We also busy growing Circles in places as diverse as Motherwell, Glasgow, Perth, Woodbridge in Suffolk and Cleethorpes.
Guardian Group
The group meets three times a year to oversee the running of the circle, if you need the guardians to address an issue, please get in touch via ngcircle@gmail.com.
What can we do and what do we aim to do?
Bring people together
Encouraging connection
Spirit of exchange
What is our capacity to support vulnerable people?
People have different needs/different levels, where some needs are met and some are not met by the circle. However people also learn many skills through the group, eg. Meeting and greeting, discussion, making friends. It is more likely to increase our capacity of we do not over obligate any one who comes along.
What can we do about anyone over committing?
Emphasise that there is no obligation to commit to things that you may not be able or have the time to do at the beginning of the meeting and at the end when discussing the roof of shelter. Maybe ask new comers not to commit to anything on their first visit until they understand how the circle works.
Addressing issues of safety at end of the meeting and checking that everyone is happy with arrangements that have been made. However we must emphasise the need to do things in groups of 3 and if someone drops out the arrangement should be postponed. However the circle or the guardians can not be responsible, people come together outside the circle at their own risk.
Work undertaken for money and personal relationships are outside circle and guardian boundaries, however we discussed the possibility of a mini circle of guardians to come together for particular problems or issues.
What constitutes a Community Circle member?
- Anyone who turns up and shares contact details?
- People who have received help and give help – Questions were raised about people’s obligation to give help if they receive help. However does this turn into a skills exchange!? Are we a skills exchange or is the circle something else where people who need something can receive without the obligation to give at that time?
- Needs of people need to be voiced at meeting by the person or someone on their behalf at their request. We should never assume about what people might need.
Having discussed these issues the Guardians concluded that there is no official membership status, no eligibility, and no ‘obligations’ in the circle or beyond. The Circle is responsible for how it safely connects people especially those who are young or vulnerable, but this is as far as it goes.
Small needs being met helps to change people’s lives for the better and can restore their faith in humanity. We are not resourced in a way that allows all needs to be met. Sometimes just coming to the meeting meets a need in a person.
Role of the Guardians
To think well about the circle
To support it to flourish
Provide individuals within the circle who can be contacted in relation to a problem
Deal with any difficult issues that may arise in absolute confidence
The recent publication of “Keys To Inclusion” by Colin Newton and Derek Wilson references the work of Community Circles. So if you want to read about how they work…
Available NOW from our store
The Keys To Inclusion book is revolutionary and indeed a Bible for the inclusion movement, I hope people professing to be inclusive read it carefully and then put that into practice. The world will be such a simpler and better place if that happens!
Quote from a Parent – Feb 2011
The Story So Far…
Circle NG3 was created and met for the first time on 1st July 2008. There was a fine sharing of vision for the community we would all love to live in some great exchanges and connections made! Young people were present and made some wonderful contributions.
Look at feedback from one of the circle members!!
“Hi Colin and Derek,
Thank you so much for last night, do you remember James who I offered to mend that laptop? I phoned his mum, and told her about the offer and she said ‘this gives me hope’. Please could you post me about 5 flyers or letters with this in it because I’ve got lots of people to tell about how good the meeting was, how enabling. Please could you say in your letter your website and describe that it is a meeting which is free with food and drink and where able and disabled people come together completely equally and help each other in all sorts of little and big ways. Please could you say that this meets one of the greatest needs of the disabled person to be able to help and to give. Also in the meeting is a chance to share in two’s good things and needs in a respectful way. I need you to write this in a letter because I won’t be able to explain all this to the people I want to tell. Thank you again for a lovely uplifting experience.”
Get Involved!
Come and see what it is all about at Circle NG in Nottingham…
If you would like to come along and check out one of the circles just turn up, you will be welcomed by food and friends.