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Simulation highlights challenges with poverty

When poverty strikes it can come faster than anyone could ever expect - Wolf Creek Public Schools hosts simulation for staff training.
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What looks like a busy scene may be replicating reality. WCPS held a poverty simulation for staff Feb. 3 aimed at identifying some of the challenges people in a poverty situation may face. The simulation uses real world data and examples to highlight the challenges.

When poverty strikes it can come faster than anyone could ever expect.

That’s one of the key lessons a Wolf Creek Public Schools (WCPS) professional development simulation is hoping to get across to social workers and support staff within the organization.

Held Feb. 3 and hosted by inclusive learning staff members Shelagh Hagemann, FNMI success co-ordinator and Lorna Hewson, co-ordinator of inclusive learning services, the simulation provided a real look at the issues families in poverty are facing.

Dubbed the Community Action Poverty Simulation (CAPS), which was created by the Missouri Association of Community Action, the event puts people in a one month simulation broken up into four weeks. Each week runs about 15 minutes.

“It’s a month in the life of someone living at the poverty level,” said Hagemann.

Within the simulation are the families at the centre of everything that is happening, while on the outside are community services. Among the services are agencies like community health care but also banking, groceries, police and social services as well as schools.

Parents have to make choices and sometimes those choices relate to paying the bills over repairing their vehicles. Or choosing between paying utilities or buying food to feed the family.

“The third week of the simulation students are not in school so parents have to determine what are they going to do with their children for that week,” said Hagemann.

For Hewson, the experience is reflective of what is actually happening with families struggling at the poverty levels. After the simulation was over staff were able to debrief and discuss the challenges they faced in trying to navigate the system.

While parents faced certain issues, the service people had their own problems with agencies at risk of going out of business if they gave in to the needs of those who needed their help. Both groups had to make hard choices.

Hagemann said this simulation gave her a new perspective on the challenges people struggling with poverty face. She added there were some staff members who have faced these financial hardships who found the simulation quite accurate.

“Some who have lived in poverty shared their feelings and said this is exactly what it’s like,” said Hagemann. “There are a lot of barriers in front of you. There’s a lot of information that you don’t know.”

In the simulation parents said they neglected their children who ended up getting into legal trouble or who resorted to stealing. They became targets for criminal activity. Some families faced eviction notices for not paying the bills, parents who resorted to selling drugs to feed their families and pay bills ended up in jail, which created even more burdens on the family.

Both Hewson and Hagemann’s goal is to give support staff and social workers at WCPS a greater awareness of the challenges that families in a poverty situation face and to give them some ideas of other agencies outside of the schools that can provide assistance.

“We know that poverty impacts their (students) learning,” said Hagemann.

The end goal is to ensure students are given the best opportunity to learn and removing those challenges may help them get there.