The Poverty Simulation is similar to a reality board game. People use fake money, play different characters, and walk around from place to place as if on a life-size game board. When participants arrive, they randomly select a name tag that indicates their role. One may find she is a single dad trying to keep a family of three afloat. Another may find he is a student at a university who is using his financial aid to pay for expenses for his family while his father is incarcerated and his mother is nowhere to be found.
Each role is connected to a “family” and each family has two objectives: 1) provide the necessities of their family such as utilities, food, school, and work, and 2) to maintain your shelter.
To reach these objectives, they must interact with community institutions represented by the resource tables which form the fictional town of “Real-Ville.”
Ana Garcia, a field consultant in the Diocesan Office of Evangelization and Adult Faith Formation, found that “even when you try your very best, it still might not be enough. I felt stressed and worried.”
The Poverty Simulation was created from real-life family profiles and offers a concise representation of “the tyranny of now,” which refers to the way poverty requires constant attention to the immediate demands of survival. Through the simulation’s series of deadlines and difficult choices, participants feel the pressures that people in poverty experience daily.
“The experience was real,” said Sister Sarah Shrewsbury, Director of the Office of Vocations for the Diocese. “I felt hurt, mad, frustrated, embarrassed and useless! I lost myself in the plight of the family—felt angry, sad and frustrated…there was no time to help or care about others.”
In closing remarks at the event, Ken F. Sawa, CEO of Catholic Charities San Bernardino-Riverside, urged participants to take their insights into their lives and help to make a change.
“Our hope is that with increased awareness each of you will begin to consider your “sphere of influence” and how you might translate this experience into action that will decrease the burdens of those without enough resources to get by.”
Catholic Charities plans to honor the Holy Father’s Jubilee Year of Mercy by hosting Poverty Simulations throughout the Diocese in 2016. For more information, call 909-388-1239 x306.