Julie Rossier, the Community Services Program Manager at the Southeastern Utah Association of Local Governments will be the speaker at the Business Expansion and Retention general meeting on February 1. The program will highlight for attendees what it is like to be without adequate resources in today’s modern society and how people in that position cope with day to day living.

Intergenerational poverty in the United States and in Utah is of huge concern. Poverty in any fa

mily affects the economy of an entire area in many different ways. The southeastern part of the state which includes Carbon and Emery Counties has some of the highest poverty rates in Utah.

Rossier will talk about the Circles Program that is now in place to change the lives of those in poverty. It is a program that has been successful in many places in the United States in the reduction of intergenerational poverty.

The meeting will start at 8 a.m. and light refreshments will be served. Each general meeting never lasts more than one hour. BEAR meetings are held at the Jennifer Leavitt Student Center in the Alumni Room on the USU Eastern Campus in Price.

BEAR’s mission is to inform, grow and improve business in the Castle Country area.