Building Circles of Support

A Circle of Support is a group of people who meet regularly to help someone achieve their ambitions in life.

The central person decides who and how many people are in the group, when and how often they meet, and what they will discuss when they see each other.

Circles of Support are intended to:

• Help a person develop a Person Centred Plan
• Give them independence and ownership of their life through the support of those close to them
• Provide ideas on their development through the creativity and opinions of others
• Maintain existing relationships and create new networks within the local community 

We have developed simple guides that describe what Circles of Support are and how students can start their own.

First hand experiences of young people's Circles of Support can also be found in the We Can Dream! report.