Open Circle

Uplifting Humanity | Transforming Lives | Restoring Community

Together, we’re reweaving the social fabric.

Join a living network of care that bridges generations, heals trauma, and restores connection through nature and story. People and organization development for the 21st building. Building people, planet and purpose driven companies, teams, and communities.

10/30/2026

Sometimes finding support starts with a conversation.

Open Circle Foundation is expanding its Veteran programming across Alaska through the SSG Fox Su***de Prevention Grant Program. We’re working to connect eligible Veterans with peer support, mentorship, community, and resources that can help them navigate challenges and stay connected over time.

We want to hear from Veterans who are interested in learning more, as well as family members, friends, and community organizations who want to help connect Veterans with support.

If you’re in the Kenai Peninsula, Anchorage, Mat-Su, Fairbanks, or a surrounding Alaska community, we invite you to reach out.

Comment SUPPORT below, send us a message, or email [email protected] to start a conversation.

You don’t need to have all the answers to take the first step.

10/28/2026

The wilderness experience is only the beginning.

At Heroes Healing Homestead, Veterans come together through nature, shared experiences, mentorship, and community. But the work doesn’t end when the experience is over.

With support from the SSG Fox grant, Open Circle Foundation is building a more connected system of support around these experiences, including ongoing peer relationships, individualized support planning, case management, help navigating resources, and opportunities for Veterans to become mentors themselves.

Because connection matters beyond a single weekend. And support should be there when people return home, too.

We’re working toward a future where more Veterans across Alaska can find a place to belong, contribute, and support one another.

What does lasting community look like to you? We’d love to hear your thoughts.

10/26/2026

Open Circle Foundation has been awarded $332,500 through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ Staff Sergeant Parker Gordon Fox Su***de Prevention Grant Program to expand community-based su***de prevention services for Veterans across Alaska.

Through Open Circle’s Veteran programs and Heroes Healing Homestead, this funding will help strengthen a network of support that extends beyond a single wilderness experience.

The work will include peer mentorship, community connection, individualized support, case management, resource navigation, and continued relationships that help Veterans find connection and purpose.

During the FY2027 grant year, Open Circle plans to reach approximately 30 eligible Veterans across the Kenai Peninsula, Anchorage, Mat-Su, Fairbanks, and surrounding communities.

We’re beginning this next chapter with a simple belief: Veterans deserve a community they can belong to before they reach a crisis.

Know a Veteran, family member, or community organization that would like to learn more? Comment SUPPORT, send us a message, or email us at [email protected]

We’d love to start a conversation.

05/01/2026

Something is happening right now—and it’s easy to miss.

It’s not just information competing for your attention.

It’s meaning.

Interpretations show up before you’ve even had a chance to feel.
Stories form fast.
Certainty arrives… and calls itself truth.
And without noticing, we start living inside those stories.

But what if you could catch it in real time?
What if you could see the script while you’re inside it—
and choose something different?
That’s the edge we’re exploring in Circle Lab.

A space to slow things down just enough to notice:
• How meaning gets made
• The roles and stories we step into
• What becomes possible when we create space to choose again

📅 May 4
⏰ 4–5pm PT
📍 Online

Free to attend.
Come get curious with us.

Link in bio - classes and events

CollectiveLearning

04/06/2026

If you spend time in a forest, something becomes clear:
Nothing survives alone.

Beneath the surface, everything is in relationship—roots, fungi, nutrients, signals moving constantly between life.
And yet, in many of our human spaces, we do the opposite.

We amplify some voices.
We filter out others.

We move fast—and miss what matters.

This Wednesday, we’re opening a space to explore the thin line between collective wisdom and collective folly.
✨ Not a space to debate or fix
✨ A space to slow down, notice, and listen more deeply

Because collective wisdom doesn’t come from agreement—
it emerges when we stay connected long enough for something deeper to form.

Circle Lab: Collective Wisdom & Collective Folly
🗓 Wednesday (this week!) 4pm PT
🌐 Free & Online
Come join us.
Link in bio

dialogue emergence humanconnection

03/16/2026

Ever feel like the world is just too much? Here’s how listening circles can help us find calm amidst chaos.

Tag someone who needs to hear this!

In this months podcast, we’ve been diving deep into listening circles, and they are foundational to our work. They help us check in, share stories, and connect in a meaningful way.

Now, more than ever, we see how vital this practice is. With rising stress levels and constant activation of our nervous systems, these circles offer a space to slow down and breathe. They remind us that we can switch from a state of hyper-vigilance to one of peace, even in a chaotic world.

Whether in a prison or out in nature, the magic of listening circles is undeniable. By simply being present and sharing our experiences, we cultivate connection and understanding.

Full podcast episode - link in bio or search and follow Beyond Listening Podcast on your favourite podcast platform

WayfindersProgram

03/04/2026

BEYOND LISTENING POD: New Episode drops today

With and

New episode after a year away 🎙️

Belonging isn’t just a nice idea—it a survival instinct. In this episode we explore why our nervous systems are wired for connection, and how listening circles can help both individuals and groups settle, soften, and remember we’re not alone.

Full episode — link in bio, or search and follow Beyond Listening Podcast on your favourite podcast platform.

02/11/2026

“And if we can expand our conversation so it doesn’t require us to be in the same tribe …and in a way that we can hear each others stories we will find what unites us is bigger than what makes us different.”
Chris Arlen, Open Circle Board member

Join us today at 4pm PST for Circle Lab.

Every month free and online🌿

We’ll slow down together and explore what it means to be human.
We’ll practice widening our lens and our conversation.
Noticing what’s happening at the edges.

This isn’t a space to solve.
It’s a space to notice.
And to strengthen the kind of collective perception that makes wiser action possible.

🕓 February 11th | 4–5pm PST
🌐 Free & Online

All are welcome - more information on our website - link in bio.

01/29/2026

Beginning again doesn’t mean starting over.

It means returning—to what matters most.

In a world moving faster than our nervous systems can track, listening half-heartedly is no longer enough. What’s being asked of us now is something wider. More collective. More human.

✨ This year we share the journey of Beyond Listening in a new blog, podcast, and learning series exploring practices for making sense of our lives
and work—together

We’re starting with our first blog and a live gathering:

🌀 Circle Lab: Human Systems as Ecosystems

📅 Feb 11 | 🕓 4–5pm PST | 🌐 Free & Online

Listening half-heartedly is no longer enough.

Join us. Link for events and blog in bio.

12/06/2025

Circle Lab: Popping the Bubble of Big Assumptions
Tuesday, December 9th, 2025 • 4–5 PM PST • Free & Online

We all carry big assumptions—often-unspoken beliefs formed early in life that shape how we move through the world. They once kept us safe, but over time they can become like bubbles: fragile enclosures that limit our ability to respond freely and fully to what life is asking of us now.

Breaking a big assumption is a courageous crossing into the unknown. It doesn’t happen all at once. Through small, intentional experiments, we can start to see which beliefs still serve us… and which ones keep us stuck in patterns rooted in the past.

Next Tuesday, we’ll gather in community to explore:
✨ How our big assumptions shape our choices and interactions
✨ What becomes possible when we begin to question them
✨ The courage required to “pop the bubble” and step into new ways of being
✨ The capacities that emerge when we loosen old protective structures

Join us for December’s Circle Lab — a reflective, spacious hour to pause, connect with peers, and explore leadership from the inside out.

Circle Lab is a monthly space hosted by Open Circle, created for people navigating complexity, collaboration, and meaningful change in their organizations and communities. We believe in the power of community to spark transformation.

👉 Register free and join us online next Tuesday: see our Facebook event

Let’s step into what’s possible when we release the beliefs that hold us back.

Address

Brookings, OR

Website

http://www.weareopencircle.org/, http://www.weareopencircle.com/

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