Simulation exercise shows challenge of living with poverty
Friday, March 28, 2008
Students participating in the Community Action Poverty Simulation at Wittenberg University Thursday night, March 27, were asked to cope with a number of challenging fictional scenarios.
Judging from some of the students' random comments, the simulations cut very close to reality:
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"I need some money for the mortgage, lots of it," one person said.
"We keep hiring people, but they won't show up for work," another said.
The Benham-Pence Student Center teamed with students coping with various slice of life scenarios. The 45 participating students were divided into eight mock "families." The families were then challenged to live for a "month" in the fictional settings.
"This simulation is an opportunity for people to experience what it's like to walk in the shoes of a person who lives in poverty," explained Karin Van Zant, a director with Think Tank Inc. and program facilitator.
The event was broken up into 15-minute increments representing one "week." The challenge was to achieve success by paying bills, keeping or getting jobs, caring for children and keeping a roof over the family's head. For most participants, this success was difficult to attain.
Wittenberg's First-Year Experience and Community Service Office sponsored the event in conjunction with Think Tank Inc. and the Circles Campaign. For Wittenberg junior and political science major Kara Kavalec, it was her third participation at the program. At her first simulation, she was part of a family that nearly ended up homeless by the end of the month.
That experience, Kavalec said, taught her "how easily something or other can go wrong and you can end up without anything."
