The final tour stop before the team heads back to Springfield took us 280 miles west of Jackson into East Texas. Longview, another mid-sized American town, grew up around the oil boom. It is home to 78,000 people, three school districts, and two very different sides of the city. While the north side of town is mostly prosperous, South Longview is much more impoverished. Very few businesses operate in an area with a much denser populations. Fewer grocery stores and an abundance of pay-day lenders mark the area. 70% of the students in the Longview School District receive free or reduced lunch. Residents struggle to find decent paying jobs with minimal education. When a local brewery relocated around ten years ago, the city lost a considerable amount of tax revenue.
In light of these issues, the city of Longview, through a program called Partners in Prevention, took on the Circles initiative in 2008. They have graduated four Getting Ahead classes to this point and will soon be matching their most recent class with allies. Their Circle Leaders are working class citizens who have found a community of support and strength in the initiative led by Holly Fuller and Lyndell McAllister. Partners in Prevention also has a unique Circles community that they forged in partnership with Longview. 15 city employees were referred and have been active participants in their own Getting Ahead class and Circles community. Fuller and McAllister are pleased with the progress being made by their Circle Leaders and the growth of the Allies who are partnered with them. Together they are looking for ways to tackle the systemic issues that people in poverty need to overcome in Longview. These obstacles look overwhelming at times, but with the support of the city government and the camaraderie they have found with one another, this Circles community has found hope.
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