Courtesy of Texas College
Numerous Social Work Club students participated in the Poverty Simulation hosted by the East Texas Human Needs Network this spring. The poverty simulation experience is deigned to help audiences begin to understand what it might be like to live in a typical low-income family trying to survive from month to month. The simulation brought over 80 student participants from all over East Texas, inclusive of students from Texas College, East Texas Baptist University, Tyler Independent School District, Tyler Junior College, as well as other local groups and organizations. As participants, students assumed the role of 26 different families facing poverty.
Immersed in a variety of simulated scenarios and contexts, some families were newly unemployed, some were recently deserted by the familyâs âbreadwinner,â some were homeless, and others were recipients of TANF, or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, either with or without additional earned income. Other participants were senior citizens receiving disability, on social security, or were grandparents raising their grandchildren. The task of the âfamiliesâ were to survive four 15-minute âweeksâ and provide basic necessities and shelter. To do so they would visit different stations around the room such as social services, payday loans, healthcare services, utilities services, a public school, and many other real life situations and problems that individuals and families living within poverty may face, such as a sick child or not being able to get to work without transportation.
By the end of the four âweeks,â participants were running across the room trying to be the first in line, after realizing how limited time really is for those individuals whom this is their everyday life. Most, if not all, participants struggled to even maintain their poverty lifestyle, let alone recover or move themselves out of poverty.
The Poverty Simulation afforded an undoubtedly beneficial experiential learning opportunity. The exercise provided Texas College students valuable insight into the real-life struggle of poverty in East Texas. From this knowledge gained through simulated experiences, students will enter the field of social work with a better understanding of the populations that they will futuristically serve.
Alongside the Texas College students were Social Work professors Ms. Charlottes Sanders, Ms. LaKeshia Harris, and Ms. Sunny Shepheard as volunteers to help manage and facilitate a multitude of âservicesâ for the simulation, as well as to watch the students at work.