Back in 2024, the first Circles of the Coastal Bend chapter was established in Corpus Christi. The new Gregory location now becomes the second chapter in Texas.<\/p>\n
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas \u2014 A program aimed at helping families break the cycle of poverty is expanding into Gregory.<\/p>\n
Circles of the Coastal Bend is launching a new chapter in the city, bringing mentorship, resources and long-term support to residents in need.<\/p>\n
Back in 2024, the first Circles of the Coastal Bend chapter was established in Corpus Christi. The new Gregory location now becomes the second chapter in Texas.<\/p>\n
The organization\u2019s 18-month program pairs participants with mentors and connects them with tools focused on financial stability, professional development and personal growth.<\/p>\n
For Patricia Vera, a single mother participating in the Corpus Christi chapter, the program has already made a difference.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re gonna be a better person once you take care of yourself,\u201d Vera said.<\/p>\n
Vera said the program helped her set and accomplish personal goals.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe learned how to make priority goals, too, and in those goals I actually accomplished two out of the three,\u201d she said. \u201cI started losing weight, joining a gym, got off medicine \u2014 as long as I can keep it off.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, the program is expanding to Gregory.<\/p>\n
Program Director Isabella Jones said the initiative goes beyond financial education by helping participants address a variety of challenges they may face.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is for 18 months, and we teach them financial education, job readiness, soft skills, hard skills, and we also help with other things,\u201d Jones said. \u201cA person experiencing poverty may need help with mental health or may just need encouragement. The thing about our program is that we\u2019re building a community to end this. It\u2019s bringing all the resources together that makes the program a success.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gregory Mayor Estella Boyes, who grew up in the community, said the program is a good fit for the city\u2019s needs.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt fits the demographics of our city so well,\u201d Boyes said. \u201cWe have about a 39% poverty rate within our city, and the median age is around the upper 30s, so this program is targeted perfectly to help our citizens here in the community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Boyes said many families in Gregory struggle to meet basic needs.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of people that have difficulty meeting the challenge of being able to feed their kids, pay their rent, pay their bills, put gas in the car,\u201d she said. \u201cThese are all fundamental things we need in order to thrive. Having Circles come in and help people navigate these challenges is going to be huge for our citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gregory City Administrator Blyth Swartsfager said city leaders have been looking for ways to provide more support services to residents and believe the partnership can make a lasting impact.<\/p>\n
Jones said the goal is not just short-term assistance, but long-term change.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re hoping to have 15 families,\u201d Jones said. \u201cWe call them leaders, our participants, and it doesn\u2019t have to be families. It could be an individual experiencing poverty who wants to move out of that situation.\u201d<\/p>\n
The new Gregory chapter is expected to begin serving families later this month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Back in 2024, the first Circles of the Coastal Bend chapter was established in Corpus Christi. The new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":294950,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[155,157,156],"class_list":["post-294965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-corpus-christi","tag-corpus-christi","tag-corpus-christi-headlines","tag-corpus-christi-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=294965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294965\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/294950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=294965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=294965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=294965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}