SIMULATION PROVIDES REAL-LIFE CHALLENGES
Organizers of a poverty simulation assigned identities and family situations to a group of Park University students at Parkville. But participants needed no help in conjuring the emotions that accompanied obstacles to getting the help they needed. Their reactions came naturally.
“There’s a lot of real feelings going on right now,” said Nikki Pauls DeSimone, a Park faculty member who helped coordinate the event, created to help students understand what life is like for those who live at or below the poverty line.
The approximately 80 participating Park University students represented three majors: education, social work, and criminal justice. Organizers chose degree programs that would benefit from seeing “how people really live day to day” and “how hard it is to make decisions” from childcare to social service help to jobs. Those decisions literally determine the family’s health and welfare and provide a roadmap to the future.
Participants grew frustrated applying for services for which they did not immediately qualify. A group of “children” sat in chairs with their arms crossed, tired of being told they must stay in school instead of accompanying their parents to seek help, Pauls DeSimone said. That portion of the simulation may help future educators empathize with students who exhibit behavior problems in school and “think about why they could be a little more compassionate.”
The project was held in conjunction with Community Action Agency of Greater Kansas City, whose representatives assigned participants with names, gender, physical health, financial situation, and a family unit. Community Action staff represented service agencies through which participants sought help. But participants learned there were unforeseen obstacles at every turn. During a day when school was not held, two “13-year-olds” sought help for their “families” from Community Action’s Kayla Acklin, who informed them they were too young to qualify.
Students spent “four weeks” in which each week equaled 15 minutes in real time, traversing a large gymnasium on Park’s campus, set up to depict a community in which students visited tables that represented rent and utility assistance, food pantries, a utility company, grocery store, a homeless shelter, a school, community center, bank, and predatory lending facilities.
The goal for each was to finish the “month” with bills paid and families fed. Student participants were given a few bus passes and quickly realized they needed many more passes after they were “charged” one pass each time they visited a table seeking help. Participants also learned that, after standing in a long line for help, they often did not immediately get the help they needed on the first visit and had to return later to try again.
In an interview during the simulation, Acklin said agencies charged with aiding those in poverty have too little staff and often lack enough funds to help everyone who asks, requiring those seeking help to come back later.
Acklin said many don’t realize the plight of those who live in poverty. That’s why the Community Action Agency provides simulations to many organizations, including other non-profits, high schools, fire, and police departments and those in the medical field to help others empathize with those who are struggling.
Salvador Aleman a senior elementary education major from Kansas City, Kan., said he was most surprised by corruption in the simulated society. For instance, he said he paid the family’s mortgage at the wrong business and lost the money. The family was evicted from their home amid a hard lesson—always get a receipt as proof of transactions.
Some participants who were successful in gaining employment, soon discovered an additional barrier to seeking help from social service agencies which are only open during the hours they were at work, Acklin said.
After the simulation had ended, Julia Powell, a Community Action outreach specialist who led the exercise, facilitated a de-briefing in which students shared their experiences in a large group. Participants reported “intense” feelings of being “scared, depressed, and confused.” Most reported being unsuccessful in “paying bills” while “feeding their families” and realized that seeking help while living in poverty was much harder than they thought.
“Imagine doing this every day,” Powell told the group. “Try fitting a bus schedule into your life,” she said of the only mode of transportation available to most who live in poverty.
Cooper Brading of Meriden, Kan., said she was surprised by the cost of daily necessities, such as cell phones, food, and clothing.
“A lot of people struggle more than I realized,” she said.
Sydney Duffett of Richmond, Mo., who’s a senior majoring in social work, said she discovered that poverty affects all family members. She depicted a frustrated teen who only “wanted to do fun things” instead of babysitting her younger siblings while the parent was at work.
Velma Adams, an international student from Ghana, told Acklin that her family’s problems centered on the basics. “We don’t have money to buy food or pay rent,” she said.
Salvador Aleman, a senior elementary education major from Kansas City, Kan., said he witnessed poverty while growing up. “I’ve seen a lot of this stuff,” he said. “It’s a scary thing.”
