News Release
December 20, 2007

UW simulation exposes participants to day-to-day barriers of poverty

Karen Hruby discussing poverty simulation results (MP3)

It is the next best thing to being there because no one wants to be in the real thing.

Most exiting a poverty simulation conducted by the Cent$ible Nutrition Program (CNP) do so with a different attitude about those with low incomes, said CNP educators with the College of Agriculture’s Department of Family and Consumer Sciences at the University of Wyoming.

The poverty simulation program takes about an hour or two but introduces people from public assistance agencies, law enforcement, bankers, businessmen – just about anyone –  to a world of poverty where barriers prevent mothers and fathers and even grandparents from adequately providing for families.

Lori Jones, a CNP associate in Campbell County, said those with low incomes don’t have the same opportunities as those with adequate resources.

“It opened my eyes to the choices because sometimes we think people make really poor choices, and then I realized low-income people sometimes only have poor choices,” she said.

Participants are assigned to one of numerous families, whose members sit in the center of a room in chairs labeled with the family name.  A folder contains information about family members and the family situation. They role play through four “weeks,” which are 15-minute blocks. During that first week, they pay rent, take children to school, pay utilities, look for a job and experience other real-life responsibilities.

Jones has not heard from her clients whether they noticed a change in agency personnel following a simulation, but she has heard from the agency people.

“They say it totally changed their views and made them more sympathetic. It will change you,” she says. “It will change your future interactions with someone who is low income. You smile more. You are more helpful. You realize their day probably has enough problems in it, and you want to be part of the solution.”

Karen Hruby, CNP senior coordinator in Laramie County, headed a simulation in Cheyenne with more than 75 people participating from various agencies and organizations. Another 25 volunteers posed as school teachers, police officers, public assistance staff members, bankers, realtors, grocery store clerks, transportation workers and more.

The participants learned about long lines and short time.

Hruby also sees people leave with an increased sensitivity to the issues and barriers poverty erects. “Participants come out with very strong feelings,” she noted.

Irene Paiz, fiscal assistant with Community Action of Laramie County Inc., brought her personal perspective to the simulation. “I know how bad it is,” she said. “I was there years ago. This is a reminder of what our clients go through on a daily basis.”

Standing in long lines is very frustrating, added Shari Jenkins of Community Action of Laramie County Head Start. She said there are about 2,000 children living in poverty in Cheyenne. “It’s a good exercise to show what a day is like for the families,” she noted.

Gretchen Gasvoda-Kelso, CNP coordinator in Big Horn County, said some participants can’t wait for the 15 minutes to end. “We have a very small glimpse into what their life may be – the tasks and barriers they face every day, we only live for an hour,” she said.

Gasvoda-Kelso experienced in real life what participants only briefly battle when she was trying to obtain day-care for her foster children.

“I felt at times I was begging for help,” she recalled. “I knew I had the right to ask, and I  didn’t back down. But it’s frustrating and hard to ask for help.  Assistance workers are kind and want to help, but they also have federal regulations to follow. A person has to swallow his or her pride to go ask for assistance. Even though the Wyoming forms are much shorter than in the simulation, people don’t enjoy filling out all the paperwork and providing the documentation.”

Hruby recalled she’d become miffed if people didn’t show up for a scheduled nutrition class when she first began her job.

“They would later say their husband had taken their car, and they couldn’t attend,” she said. “Or come to find out their boyfriend had beaten them up or their children were sick. A nutrition class was the last thing they were concerned about attending right then. You just don’t know what people are going through in life.”

Most middle class people have never had to deal with not having enough food to feed their family, or losing their job, or not having a job, she said.

“If I had to do that day in and day out, I would go crazy. But the fact is, people do run out of food, get evicted from their home or have their lights turned off,” she said.

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