People have used the ideas of circles as a way of safeguarding individuals’ lives, offering alternatives, fulfilling dreams, and moving on with ones’ life. A circle of support, sometimes called a circle of friends, is a group of people who meet together on a regular basis to help somebody accomplish their personal goals in life (Regina DeMarasse – Circles Network – UK). It is a group of people who are intentionally invited to come together in friendship and support of a person who has a disability, for the purposes of protecting their friends interests into the future. Not with the expectation that this group might necessarily have a responsibility of ‘caring for’ the person BUT with the expectation that if asked people might be pleased to make time and agree to join the Circle to ‘look out’ for the person (Community Living Project (Sth Australia).
A Circle of Courage – Describes what every persons ordinary needs are. There’s nothing special about the need to belong, to be independent, to show off what you are good at and to contribute.
Describing a Circle – Some ways of describing what a circle is and how it works – regular, intentional, fun, promoting a persons will and preference, staring from where you are at, recognizing and building on strengths.
Circles Workshop Q&A
The typical questions that you have asked about a Circle of Friends – what if a person has no support network to start with?, what if a person doesn’t want to join?, who is part of a circle? what about professional people? – These questions and more.
Contact ClanBeo to discover how you can set up a Circle of Friends. Learn about what a circle is, how to start a circle, who works best in a circle, how it operates, what a facilitator does, and what it looks like when it works well.
