What is an Action Circle and how can it affect change? 

An Action Circle is a small group of like-minded people who devote as little as 15 minutes a day to come together to study a problem in an effort to devise a solution. Groups of five to ten people can make a significant difference on problems as diverse as reducing disparities in children's reading skill, promoting local policies that affect greenhouse gas emissions, and many more areas of concern.

Action Circles are based on Swedish Study Circles; they have played an important role in the development of social democracy in Sweden.  There were about 300,000 Study Circles operating in Sweden as of 2010.  Think what 300,000 Action Circles could do to bring about the changes we so badly need.

How Action Circles work:

• A social problem that needs improvement is identified to create an Action Circle (AC). The person leading this charge is the AC Facilitator (ACF).

• The ACF works with Values to Action (V2A) to develop a briefing document that contains a rationale and prescriptive plan to move forward.

• Invitation sent to V2A members to join and form the AC.

• First Meeting: Come together around shared values, agree on goals, and action steps.

• Additional Meetings: Review action steps from previous meetings, check in on progress, and develop new action steps to move closer toward goals.

• Compile progress in consumable format.

• Polish finished products for dissemination.

• Draft/Publish recommendations (including for next Action Circles to build on current products) and/or develop a plan for how local Action Circles could implement some of the recommendations.