Purdue Extension simulates real-world poverty issues
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Purdue Extension and the Asset Building Coalition will present a free program in Jeffersonville to anyone who works with low-income families or wants to better understand what it is like to live in poverty.
“The Reality of Poverty" on Oct. 18 at St. Augustine Church, 315 E. Chestnut St., will give participants the opportunity to role-play the lives of low-income individuals. They will interact with mock human service agencies, grocers, pawnbrokers, bill collectors, job interviewers, police officers and others. They also will learn to budget resources to provide necessities and shelter over the course of four 15-minute "weeks."
The simulation is designed to help community leaders, nonprofit boards and staff and other community workers understand the hardships and uncertainties many of their clients face. The session, which will run from 8:30 a.m. to noon, is open to the public. There is no cost to participate.
About one in eight people lives in poverty in Indiana, where the poverty level is annual household income of $22,050 for a family of two adults and two children.
For more information about the simulation, contact Angie Abbott, director of Purdue Extension's Indiana Family Nutrition Program, at 765-496-2488 or by e-mail at abbottar@purdue.edu.
Writer: Jennifer Stewart, 765-494-6682, jsstewar@purdue.edu
Source: Angie Abbott, 765-496-2488, abbottar@purdue.edu
Ag Communications: (765) 494-2722;
Keith Robinson, robins89@purdue.edu
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