The wish that started Our Circle
Every child deserves a friend. Every family deserves a community.
When Sterling Sampson blew out the candles on his fourth birthday cake, he did not ask for a ball, a bicycle, or a toy truck. He asked for a friend. Sterling, who lives in Illinois, was learning to navigate the world with an autism diagnosis. Like all of us, he wanted someone to think of him and care for him.
For some children with autism and other support needs, finding friends who share their interests and understand their experiences can be difficult. Their parents can feel isolated, too, searching for families who understand the routines, challenges, and joys that come with raising a child with support needs. So, his parents, Andrew and Ariana Sampson, set out to build a way to find others on a similar path. Their goal was simple: every child deserves a friend, and every family deserves a community.
The result is Our Circle, a nonprofit platform designed to help families raising children with disabilities, autism, and other support needs build meaningful relationships close to home. Andrew, an IT specialist and coder, built the platform. He also built the safety and security features that let health systems and providers share it with their patients. Families can discover others nearby with shared interests and experiences, connect and message one another, join groups, participate in meetups and playdates, and access learning opportunities and resources. But the goal is not to create another social network. Our Circle is designed to help online introductions become real-world relationships. Its philosophy is captured in a simple phrase: “Social belonging. Not social media.”
Social belonging.
Not social media.
Why this work is personal for Third Horizon
In South Dakota, another four-year-old made the same wish. Eli Nemelka, who also has an autism diagnosis, was the first of his five siblings not to have a friend at his fourth birthday. His father, Bo Nemelka, is a Managing Director at Third Horizon. Bo and his wife, Katie, understood the Sampsons’ mission from the inside. Bo joined Andrew and Ariana to help Our Circle grow, and he brought Third Horizon with him.
Senior Director Lindsay Reeves understands firsthand why Our Circle matters to families. She was diagnosed with a form of muscular dystrophy when she was three years old. At the time, her parents had few online resources and little support as they learned what the diagnosis would mean. Lindsay also found it hard to make friends who understood her situation and everyday challenges. That history is why she sees such value in what Our Circle offers families today.
Our Circle wants every family to have a community. Third Horizon helps organizations solve complex problems in health care. In this partnership, those two missions come together.
What Third Horizon brought
Our Circle did not need Third Horizon to build an app. Andrew and Ariana had already built the technology. The next challenge was turning a founder-built solution into a sustainable organization that could reach more families, and become a resource that health care providers, schools, and community organizations could confidently share. Since 2024, Third Horizon has worked alongside Our Circle to help build that path.
Building the foundational growth
Third Horizon helped Our Circle establish the organizational infrastructure needed to grow. In 2025, Our Circle incorporated in Illinois and has since received its 501(c)(3) designation, with Ariana serving as Founder and CEO. Third Horizon also drew on its network to help establish an inaugural Board of Directors with deep experience in health care, public health, and business. Dr. Marti Macchi, President and CEO of Project Angel Heart, chairs the board.1 Together, these steps gave Our Circle a stronger organizational foundation, experienced leadership, and strategic guidance for its next stage of growth.
Understanding what families need most
Third Horizon conducted structured interviews with Our Circle users to better understand the role the platform plays in their lives.2 The conversations reinforced that families initially come to Our Circle to find people nearby who understand the daily reality of raising a child with support needs. But the value extends beyond making an introduction. Those connections become lasting, real-world friendships for their children and sources of community and support for parents and caregivers. These insights helped sharpen Our Circle’s purpose and inform how the organization thinks about its growth.
Creating a pathway to reach more families
Third Horizon is helping Our Circle build relationships with the organizations families already know and trust, including schools, applied behavior analysis (ABA) providers, children’s hospitals, and community-based organizations. Because of patient privacy protections, these providers have not traditionally been able to connect the families they serve with one another. Our Circle’s verified groups change that, giving each organization a private space to bring its community together. By bringing Our Circle into health care, education, and community settings, the goal is to make social connection easier to find and more closely integrated with the broader network of support surrounding families.
Building for long-term and sustainable impact
As Our Circle grows, Third Horizon is also helping the organization build the resources and evidence needed to sustain that growth. This includes pursuing grants and philanthropic support and developing a research strategy to better understand and measure the platform’s effect on social belonging and mental health. Over time, that evidence can help Our Circle demonstrate its impact, strengthen partnerships, and reach more families.
Where Our Circle is today
Today, over 5,000 families across all 50 states are using Our Circle to find people who understand their experiences. Connections that begin with a profile or message can become playdates, meetups, friendships between children, and support networks between parents. The app is free and open to anyone. Through verified groups, schools, ABA providers, children’s hospitals, and community-based organizations can start private groups for the families they serve.
Our Circle’s impact reaches beyond friendship to health itself. Social connection shapes health and well-being, and families raising children with support needs often go without it. When a provider can recommend Our Circle, peer connection can become part of how families receive care. Third Horizon is helping Our Circle build the research strategy to measure that effect on social belonging and mental health.
What comes next
Our Circle began with two four-year-olds who wanted what most children want: a friend. Today, thousands of families across the country have another way to find one another. And organizations that serve children with support needs have a new way to help families build community beyond the walls of a clinic, school, or hospital.
For Third Horizon, that is what impact looks like: helping a powerful idea become an organization, helping an organization build the infrastructure to grow, and ultimately helping more families find the connection they were looking for.
We invite you to watch and share the Our Circle video so more families can find their circle. To learn more, visit ourcircle.org. You can also contact Bo Nemelka, Managing Director, at bo@thirdhorizon.com, or Lindsay Reeves, Senior Director, at lindsay@thirdhorizon.com.
Watch the Our Circle story
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