18 months after being designated the National Training Site for the Canadian Circles® Campaign, Lambton County Circles® staff will be training representatives from three Ontario communities on the exiting poverty strategy. 10 staff from various agencies will be in Sarnia September 9-12 to learn from Lambton’s experience.
The training will be delivered in classroom during the day and off site at each of the three Circles® weekly dinners in the evenings. The guests will have the opportunity to meet Lambton’s Circles® families and their Allies.
“Our entire Circles® community will be involved in helping prepare these communities to launch their own Circles® Initiatives,” says County of Lambton Circles Coordinator Gayle Montgomery. “It’s one thing to explain how the model works but quite another to actually feel it.”
Included in the training is a Community Action Poverty Simulation, Thursday, September 12. The event simulates real-life poverty experiences designed to help trainees better understand the complexities and frustrations of those who live in poverty. The program is delivered by people who are living in poverty and was designed to increase sensitivity to poverty-related issues and create awareness among community leaders and policy makers.
In September 2008, Lambton County Council approved the implementation of Circles® as the community based model for reducing the number of people living in poverty in the County of Lambton. Circles® was launched in January of 2009 making Lambton the first site in Canada to implement a Circles® Initiative. The Lambton program was designated Canada’s National Training Site in March 2012.
For more information about Lambton’s Circles® Initiative, visit www.lambtoncircles.com.
