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The best way to ensure youth feel comfortable to share and grow in their circle is to have a safe, stable, and predictable circle structure that occurs each session. This provides girls/boys with a reliable framework that they can trust and count on to happen each time. A crucial part of creating this safe, stable circle structure is the talking piece. The talking piece may be a talking stick, an object from nature such as a beautiful shell or large rock, or another item of value and meaning to the group.  The talking piece is a physical item that is used whenever the practice of attentive listening is particularly important. During check-in and at certain times during the circle session one person shares about the topic at hand by holding the talking piece and speaking from their heart, while all others listen attentively and without interruption. To begin using the talking piece

A New Grant Writer’s Template is now available for Unity Circle® and we've updated the Grant Writer’s Template for Girls Circle® and The Council for Boys and Young Men®. The templates are available for free and provide your setting with comprehensive, sector-specific language to craft an effective grant proposal to fund One Circle Foundation professional training, curricula, and implementation that fits your unique needs. Copy and paste the written content right out of any One Circle Foundation Grant Writer’s Template directly into your grant proposal.

Summer can be a challenging time for youth and families. Youth may be prevented from engaging in meaningful activities due to a lack of resources, availability, financial access, or a host of other challenges.  During the One Circle Foundation facilitator support meeting in July, some of our partners shared creative ways that they continue to engage youth during the summer months. The ideas were too good not to share. With the permission of both of our partners, we are pleased to make available the following ideas for engaging youth in meaningful activities.

June is National Pride Month, a time to reflect on the actions and courageous efforts of countless LGBT+ individuals in our history who fought for the rights of entire communities that faced unjust violence, discrimination, or were flat-out ignored by larger society. Every Wednesday throughout June we provided a social media highlight on an amazing LGBT+ individual whose community work changed the course of American, and LGBT+, history. Read all 5 features on Harvey Milk, Gilbert Baker, Marsha P. Johnson, Bayard Rustin, and Stormé DeLarverie in this compilation-style blog post.

One Circle Foundation aims to provide services and resources to support facilitators of youth service programs. We meet the needs of our community where it’s at.  Unfortunately, our community is dealing with too much all at once. We are met with violence, systemic racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, classism, ablism, housing insecurity, a climate crisis, mass shootings, war, a worldwide pandemic, and a severe mental health crisis. These large-scale traumas are on top of any personal challenges that individuals may be going through.  These topics can be hard to discuss with the youth and communities that we all work with, but it’s essential that we open the door for discussion to process these issues in a safe and supportive environment. Here is a list of resources for navigating through these topics with the youth and communities that you serve. 

Managing challenging group dynamics can be difficult, but there are a number of different ways facilitators can handle challenging behaviors depending on several factors. It is important that the facilitator examines the situation carefully as each circumstance may require a different type of approach depending on the individual and/or group, the timing, personal or group sensitivity, if there is a sense of urgency, etc. In most circumstances, however, the facilitator can use the following strengths-based strategies: 1) NAME IT (the behavior) and 2) USE THE GROUP

El Manual S.O.G.I.E Handbook (la expresión de la orientación sexual e identidad de género) ahora está disponible en inglés y español. El Manual S.O.G.I.E. es una guía para aumentar el conocimiento y la comprensión de conceptos, términos, definiciones y praxis para crear entornos de seguridad para todo joven quien se identifique sobre el espectro S.O.G.I.E.   // The S.O.G.I.E Handbook (Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, and Expression) is now available in both Spanish and English. The S.O.G.I.E. Handbook is a guide to expand understanding and knowledge of concepts, terminology, definitions, and actionable affirming practices and approaches to create safety for all youth along the SOGIE spectra. 

“Hell Yeah”, Black History Month Still Matters…. Black History Month affords us the chance to challenge what we learned in history, dig deeper, and find out the actual events of the past that were not taught in schools or portrayed in media. The media tends to showcase the negatives of the Black community, such as poverty, drugs, incarceration, lack of education, etc. These portrayals paint a biased and unfair stereotype in our minds.

Access a document that outlines detailed suggestions for adjusting each step of any OCF model to make it work beautifully while facilitating online circles.