Workshop examines living in poverty

from The Quad City Times

By Jennifer DeWitt

For those living in poverty, a lack of money may be only one of their troubles.

Transportation could be a stumbling block. Accessing social services could be an issue. Even having to make a choice between buying groceries or paying bills could be a regular dilemma.

An upcoming poverty workshop hopes to shed light on the real-life struggles so people who work with them can experience first-hand the situations these families face every day.

The Poverty Simulation & Workshop will be 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Feb. 12 at the Black Hawk State Historic Site in Rock Island. The event is sponsored by University of Illinois Extension and the Illinois Quad-City Chamber of Commerce.

“This is aimed at those living in the middle class but working with those in poverty so they can better understand the challenges and frustrations these people face,” said Diane Baker, the Illinois extension service’s youth development educator.

The workshop, which has been hosted locally several times in the past three years, has been eye-opening for its participants, she said. “They get a better idea of why someone can’t pay their bills or why people turn to crime to support their families.”

Registration is required from 40 people for the workshop to be held. The extension service also is looking for up to 15 volunteers to assist with the program. “We would like a volunteer who is or has experienced poverty first-hand,” she said.

Similar workshops have been presented to social service agencies, schools, churches and health care providers. This session is open to anyone.

In the morning session, participants assume the role of a low-income family during a poverty simulation. Each “family” — which can range from a single parent to grandparents raising grandchildren, a widow or a middle-class family that now finds a breadwinner unemployed — must go through the daily struggles of living on a limited income. Each 15 minutes represents one week in which they must provide for a family, maintain a home, get children to school or daycare, purchase food, apply for aid, utilize social services and perform other daily survival tasks.

After the simulation, participants hold a debriefing, which has proven to be a powerful tool in increasing empathy, Baker said. She added that the extension service would like to begin tracking the long-term impact of workshops and whether any organization has made changes as a result of the experience.

The workshop is part of the efforts Rock Island County is involved in as it works to get removed from the state’s poverty warning list, determined by Heartland Alliance. Baker serves on a task force assigned to address the poverty situation.

Jennifer DeWitt can be contacted at (563) 383-2318 or jdewitt@qctimes.com. Comment on this story at qctimes.com.

Poverty Simulation & Workshop

When: 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., Feb. 12

Where: Singing Bird Nature Center, Black Hawk State Historic Site, Rock Island

What’s happening: Poverty simulation experience, 9 a.m. to noon; “Understanding the Framework of Poverty” workshop, 1-3:30 p.m. Susan Zelnio of the Illinois Quad-City Chamber will present the afternoon session, which is based on the work of Dr. Ruby Payne, author of “A Framework for Understanding Poverty” and “Bridges Out of Poverty”

Cost: $10 for the morning only, $30 for afternoon only, or $35 for both sessions. Participants are on their own for lunch from noon to 1 p.m.

Registration: University of Illinois Extension’s Web site, extension.uiuc.edu/rockisland

For more information: Extension office, (309) 796-0512