Nonprofit Spotlight

Nonprofit Spotlight

Circle of Angels

Moving people from poverty to prosperity 

The Circle of Angels Initiative, Inc. (the Circle), a Chesapeake Beach-based nonprofit, teams with diverse stakeholders to propel people from poverty to prosperity (P2P). This mission extends both locally and globally with a focus on best practices to prevent risky behavior. It was an early advocate for battering intervention in domestic violence. The Circle promotes entrepreneurship and affordable housing. The organization involves individuals with lived experiences to embody a mantra of “doing nothing about us without us.” 

Every year the Circle participates in the Women Moving Forward behind bars conference at the Maryland Correctional Institution for Women (MCI-W) in Jessup. Flower arrangements are allowed in MCI-W only once a year and that is at the conference. At the first conference in 2008, the Circle noticed that the flower centerpieces at the lunch tables were touched and enjoyed by the women. The next year, the organization got permission from the warden and made 60 small arrangements so that the entire facility could be awash in color.

The flower arrangements mean a lot to the women. As one woman held a flower bouquet, she said, “You really do want me to succeed when I leave here, don’t you!” At the end of the day, volunteers and correctional officers take them home as a small token of appreciation. Roseanna Vogt is the executive director of the Circle and one of her favorite memories is of a beaming correctional office with many of the flowers at her desk waiting to be distributed throughout the facility against the stark contrast of the gray walls and heavy black bars.

One of the Circle’s signature events, the annual Operation Patuxent (OpPAX), commemorates two historic WWII Southern Maryland sites, the Naval Air Station Patuxent River and Solomons Naval Amphibious Training Base. Although it has been scaled back, Operation Patuxent never stopped. In 2022, the year depicted, reenactor Vince Turner posed with KerryLynn Wagner, the daughter of a Rosie the Riveter, who laid the wreath in honor of those who served at the top secret amphibious training base.

At the first CSM Day of Service in 2024, CSM employee Irina Schubert (below, left) volunteered to assist Circle of Angels Executive Director Roseanna Vogt (below, right) with the organization's website. Volunteers from Leadership Southern Maryland (LSM) have also worked with the Circle in the fields of suicide and risky behavior prevention, battering intervention, churches being safe, comfort, and reunification centers after a disaster, and the emerging Ag and Art Tour both locally and in other countries.

The Circle’s founding director, Roseanna Vogt, is the 2022 Woman of the Year for the Calvert Minority Business Alliance. She was also the 2016 recipient of the Peace Builder Award for the Circle’s work in community and police relations.