Funding woes doom Aurora's Study Circles program

In the end, Aurora's award-winning Community Study Circles programs couldn't make it through the biggest hoop of all -- the financial one.

As of last week, the popular organization officially has dissolved, with leaders saying it simply became too tough to compete for funding.

"I've had a few good cries," Executive Director Mary Jane Hollis said.

But she's confident the program's philosophy will live on -- maybe through schools and churches.

More than 6,000 people took part in Study Circles programs, which aimed to find solutions to community concerns through dialogue among diverse groups.

Circles consisted of 12 to 15 people with differing backgrounds and viewpoints who tried to build an understanding of their differences.

The nonprofit effort started in 1997. In recent years, leaders worked mostly with students in the Many Young Voices programs.

The organization had a budget of about $240,000, with money paying for three staff members and training materials. But it ultimately became too hard to compete for funding, Hollis said.

For example, Fox Valley United Way cut its Study Circles contribution, which was as much as $7,500 a few years ago, as it re-evaluates its finances.

"If we can't do a program up to scale after working so hard for 10 years," she said, "we were better to let the organization fall away."

Over the years, Hollis said she's had many successes: for example, leaders saw a drop in discipline referrals among kids in Young Voices at one junior high.

"We've seen definite changes in attitude and behavior," she said.

The concept could apply to current issues, she said, such as the controversy surrounding the opening of Planned Parenthood on the city's east side.

"Nobody's really listening to how there could be some common ground found and perhaps some compromises (made)," she said.

For now, Hollis said she's taking things one day at a time and considering what to do next. But she believes the circles concept can survive, either through schools, where it's already being used, or in churches.

"That knowledge and that experience can be done without the trappings of an organization," she said, "if people are committed to it."