By Kyle Kern Staff writer
In order to bring more awareness to the struggles of poverty, the Johnson Center for Civic Engagement at Susquehanna hosted a poverty simulation in the Benjamin Apple Meeting Rooms in Degenstein Campus Center.
This event was focused on the obstacles in everyday life for families labeled as poor and brought an understanding of this to students.
In order to help bring that situation to the students, the Community Action Agency of Snyder and Union Counties was brought in to help.
Community action agencies are found in every state in the United States and are dedicated to provide services such as GED classes, technical skills classes, financial support and networks of help to those in need.
To begin the simulation, everyone was given a role to assume in a predetermined family that is in poverty. In each family there was a packet with biographical, financial, medical and work information on each of the members of the families.
Some families were left with disabled parents or children, young-age pregnancies, unemployment or homelessness.
When the simulation began, the families had 12 minutes to finalize work and financial payments, while also balancing transportation costs. The catch was that after the 12 minutes were up, the week was up.
There were four rounds of the 12 minute periods, which constituted a month of time. Within the month, families dealt with various obstacles like medical expenses, food bills, loan payments, mortgage payments, transportation issues, family member situations, schooling and unemployment.
This simulation was designed to imitate real life poverty situations as closely as possible.
Families had to figure out how to maintain their household, while also dealing with the obstacles of poverty. Some families in the simulation lost their home, even after obtaining a full-time job.
Others experienced hardships where children had to drop out of school, while parents lost their job because they went to buy food instead of showing up to work.
At the end of the month, the families returned to their seats and the community action agency staff led a discussion of what the students experienced in the simulation.
The staff members tried to bring awareness to the forefront with poverty statistics of the area around Susquehanna.
Eleven percent of families live below the poverty line, $24,300, but that number is not always accurate as the poverty line basically only includes food costs.
The newer indicator for poverty is the Self-Sufficient Standard of $46,000, under which 26 percent of families live.
This standard includes payments on loans, transportation costs, medical expenses, food and clothing.
Sophomore Clarissa Woomer said, “I think being aware of all of this information and statistics, while also being aware of poverty stricken families’ situations is important. That they deal with this on a regular basis is humbling and we should make an effort to help out.”
Sophomore Abbie Wolfe, JCCE staff member and coordinator of the poverty simulation, was excited for the amount of people at the event.
She has been volunteering with communities from a young age. She said, “Since attending SPLASH I have held a greater intensity to help with poverty stricken families, and it also means a lot to me as I am majoring in childhood education, where a lot of children are going to school hungry. It is so important for people to realize that this is everywhere.”