Simulating poverty

Yesterday VISTA called me down to Columbus to re-connect with VISTAs around the state and the mission of VISTA: to eliminate poverty.  Half of the day was spent in a Bridges Out of Poverty session and half the day was spent in a poverty simulation.

I was particularly interested in the poverty simulation because I run on myself--I re-wrote half the rules and debuted it at LEADS, and tomorrow night I am running the updated version for Bonner Life 101.  For those that don't know, a poverty simulation runs like this:  Participants are given a family profile that includes, incomes, bills owed, and family relationships.  The participants take this profile and then complete some objective by going to different stations, set up as stores or government agencies or busineses, staffed by volunteers who have done the simulation before.  Usually there is a time limit.

At the VISTA simulation, we had to keep the family running and pay all the bills (utilities, food, mortgage, car, misc., school fees) within a set time period while going to school or work.  I was a 21 year old community college student with a recently incarcerated father, twin 13 year-old sisters, and a 3 year-old sister.  I didn't do too hot--I was suspended from school for leaving early so I could go check on my sister, who was taken to jail for bringing a gun to school.  While I was out paying (most of) the bills, my neglected twins sisters started dealing drugs and the baby didn't get picked up from daycare.  For my simulation, the focus is on food---the objective is to take the family profile, calculate how much money is left for food once the bills are paid, and navigate the transportation and social services system to obtain 2,000 nutritious calories for each family member.

Though the simulations take a lot of work to put together because you have to create identities for participants, create and sort materials before/after the simulations, and gather volunteers for the stations, they are an incredibly powerful and valuable learning tool.  It's one thing to look at the statistics of people in poverty, but it's another to experience some of the stress and anxiety people in poverty feel.  The simulations help participants understand the barriers people in poverty face, dissect the stereotype of poverty, and simply become more aware of the impoverished lifestyle than they would normally.

I have found the more I have been to climb into other people's shoes to temporarily adopt their outlook on life, the kinder, less judgmental, and more compassionate I am.  I fully support poverty simulations, and it would be awesome if they were more widespread in programming than they are, even in less involved formats.

So if you know of anyone looking for a poverty simulation, email me! okeith @ oberlin.edu