Who We Are

Thousands of mothers watching their children go to sleep each night in beds rather than on the floor. Children picking out their school clothes each morning from dressers rather than plastic garbage bags. Low-income, pregnant adolescents receiving the care-taking skills needed to raise healthy babies. Recently-homeless parents learning – and putting into practice – the basic life skills needed to find and retain a job. The mission of A Wider Circle is simple: to help individuals and families lift themselves out of poverty.

Each day A Wider Circle provides basic need items to families transitioning out of shelters or simply living without life’s necessities. We also go into low-income schools and shelters to lead educational workshops on topics ranging from healthy self-esteem and stress management to resume writing and financial planning.

A Wider Circle was proud to recently be named “one of the finest small charities Greater Washington has to offer” by the Catalogue for Philanthropy. In 2008 the organization received the Washington Area Women’s Foundation Leadership Award and the Community Foundation for National Capital Region’s Linowes Leadership Award for “unsung heroes.” We were also honored to have the Examiner describe A Wider Circle as “an all-inclusive reservoir of support for those in need… an example of the grassroots movement at its best.”