OCF Blog

Dear Friends and Partners -   I am excited to announce that earlier this month, I joined One Circle Foundation's tireless and devoted co-founder, Beth Hossfeld, in the role of Board Co-Chair.   I have proudly served OCF as a director since 2019, most recently as Vice President during a time of significant change for the organization and the collective world. In partnership with the board, Beth and I grew and diversified our leadership talent and strengthened our policies to adapt to increased demand and our new ways of working. 

16 years ago I was intimidated, excited, nervous, and honored to be given the opportunity to facilitate my first Girls Circle with eight 16-17-year-old girls, all of whom were on probation. They were required to attend as a condition of their probation and we met in a classroom on their high school campus right after school each Wednesday. Going into that first session, I did all of the extra things that I could think of

2022 has been a year of celebration as One Circle Foundations' 25th year anniversary. We want to share all that our team and you as circle and council facilitators and supporters have accomplished this year. Watch this slideshow video of photos from 2022 and below that you'll see a list of this year's major accomplishments. This year we... Trained 1,786 people from across the globe in one of our four trainings: Girls Circle, The Council for Boys and Young Men, Mitigating Gender and Racial Bias: Intersectionality and Allyship, and Mother-Daughter Circle Training. In-Person Training resumed in August, 80 scholarships were provided...

We need to make school FUN again! The finger painting, coloring, playground, and games (inside and outside of class) alongside academics project a light of jubilance in the soul of your child. As they ascend to higher grades, a subtle shadow or cloud can begin to encroach on their amination and desire to go to school and/or continue in a society that has failed them. Of course, there are numerous distractions: social media, computers, and cell phones just to list a few, as there are well-documented after-school extra-curricular activities for students to engage themselves such as sports, chorus, or drama club. Students need to be challenged, academically fed, and entertained.

At One Circle Foundation, we often talk about the dedication and commitment of our facilitators. I want to take a minute and share two examples of this dedication of two individuals who attended Girls Circle training at the end of September. Sapphire was registered to attend our Girls Circle training online. When we began the training, Sapphire let us know that she was pregnant and that she may not be able to attend on day 3 of the training as she had a scheduled doctor's appointment. We let Sapphire know that it was no problem and that OCF could reschedule her third day of training. On day 2 of training, Sapphire let us know that although she had a scheduled appointment she would be attending on day 3 and wanted to complete her training as she had developed relationships with the other facilitators and wanted to finish the training with the individuals she had formed relationships with.  On day 3 we found out Sapphire was going to deliver her daughter later in the morning but

OCF Staff member, Fardous Ahmed has moved on this month from her work at One Circle Foundation to take on a new career in the US Government at the Dept. of Agriculture. Fardous wrote reflections on her time in the OCF training rooms and the grace that was found there in community and connection

Brothers as Allies, a curriculum from The Council for Boys and Young Men, is a program that changed my life forever. Four years ago I was struggling to find my identity. Hungry for a chance to have real interactions with youth. To truly be in the field and help. Help every student I encounter get at least .01% closer to their dreams. Some may see a small percentage, but the trajectory that shifts from the curricula provided by One Circle Foundation literally saves lives. It saved mine.

... Through my work, I am lucky and blessed to help enrich and empower girls and young women to pursue their intellectual pursuits with confidence, curiosity, and agency. This is my purpose! This is what I was born to do. Just today at our Circle of Peace, which is a daily community gathering amongst students and staff, I recited the Horizons pledge to remind our scholars that we are all sisters in this:  I promise to lift other girls up, have their backs, and make it safe for them to be exactly who they are. Every time I look in the mirror, I’ll remind myself that I am not alone, that I am beautiful, that my voice matters, and that I am enough. To anyone and everyone, including all of the young women that I have served and will serve, THANK YOU for making a difference in my life! Though that imposter syndrome creeps up every now and then, you all are the remedy that treats me every time! I am enough and so are you!  Next week, we will celebrate all things GIRL and everything that we have accomplished, persevered through, and fought for. It is a day where we uplift girls and women all around us, all over the world, those who are silenced and those who have amplified, past and present, here and now. What a day to celebrate women and girls! I challenge you to make a promise and commitment to continue to make an impact in a girl’s life. 

Let me ask this: what happens when children don’t have “Real Models” to look up to? What happens when the very people that brought children into this world don’t exemplify healthy love? What happens when children don’t have a village? What if I said, “When the community children stop crying, the community is dying.”  I invite you to stop reading for a moment and think about that. I was reared in a time where as soon as the street light came on I had to be back at the house. A time where if I was doing something I had no business it was OK for someone from the village to say, “All right now, you know better. Do I need to call your grandparents?” A time where grandma always had a home-cooked meal. I was reared to be respectful, yes mam/ no mam, or yes sir/no sir

The pandemic took anything that was challenging already in schools and poured gasoline on it.  Rather than punish kids or try to cure the problem, our job is to help them get through it.  The number one thing a kid needs while dealing with trauma or toxic stress is a loving, caring, reliable adult, per Harrison Bailey III, principal of Liberty High School in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.  Too many kids, which, consequently, are our future workforce, have been castaway, kicked out of their home, or virtually disregarded due to lack of parent involvement, lack of a healthy