La Sierra to host poverty simulation to build awareness, insight

According to a January report from the National Center for Children in Poverty at Columbia University, four out of every 10 American children live in low-income families. An article in U.S. News and World Report the same month states that 51% of students nationwide were low-income in 2013, with half or more in 21 states qualifying for free or reduced-cost school lunches.

On Sun., May 17, La Sierra University’s social work department and service-learning program is joining with Catholic Charities and the La Sierra University Church in an exercise that aims to provide insight into this issue and instill awareness of the daily stresses facing families with little income.

Called a poverty simulation, the event will be held 2 – 5 p.m. in Troesh Conference Center, Zapara School of Business at La Sierra. The simulation challenges participants to live a month in poverty in a few hours. They will be assigned an identity and family profile along with age-appropriate tasks, with a set amount of time to complete their tasks.

The public is invited to take part with participation limited to the first 100 individuals who sign up. Registration is available online at lasierra.edu/poverty-simulation.

An “Identity and Society” class of 53 students is hosting the poverty simulation as a service-learning project along with the social work department. The students previously took part in a poverty simulation practice run and are heavily involved in organizing the public simulation event. The poverty simulation is sponsored by Catholic Charities and the La Sierra University Church, and comes to La Sierra through the previous experience of Marni Straine, assistant social work professor, and Daphne Thomas, associate social work professor.

“Marni and I attended a simulation event in the fall. The experience was powerful for both of us. Afterwards our response was simply, ‘we need to bring this to La Sierra,’” said Thomas. “I am a social worker and an educator on the challenges of socioeconomic inequities. I have read and viewed information on this topic for years, but this helped me to experience it in a new way, hopefully in a way that I now am more empathetic, but more than that, I am no longer satisfied to not be doing something to help.” 

“This simulation in my opinion helps bring people to the point of needing to do something to help,” Thomas said. “Then perhaps we can supply them with some ideas of what their ‘somethings’ can be. The simulation is useful to anyone who is concerned about others, but especially those who are open to learning more about the difficulty of getting out of poverty, and the impact poverty has on a person over time.” 

For further information call 951-329-6276 or 951-236-5042.