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Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C®) invites you to participate in a powerful learning experience to gain insight into the chronic crisis that consumes so many community members — including students. The Poverty Simulation Experience is designed to help faculty, staff, administrators and community members begin to understand what it might be like to live in a typical low-income family struggling to survive from month to month. It is a simulation — not a game. The objective is to build empathy and raise participants' awareness of the realities faced by low-income individuals.
If you are passionate about creating positive change, register to participate in this immersive experience.
To ensure the integrity of the experience, we ask that participants refrain from seeking additional information before the simulation. We aim to offer an authentic experience that sparks thoughtful reflection.
The Poverty Simulation Experience will:
Promote Poverty Awareness: During the simulation, you will role-play a month in poverty and experience the lives of low-income families.
Increase Understanding: After the simulation, you will unpack your learning and brainstorm community change.
Inspire Local Change: Together, we can be voices to end poverty in our family, friends and community.
This event is sponsored by the Institute for Community Impact.
The Poverty Simulation Experience helps participants understand how poverty affects community members' daily lives while they balance school, work, family and other responsibilities.
Despite the complexity of poverty, it is often portrayed as a stand-alone issue. This simulation helps individuals rethink poverty by walking a month in the shoes of someone facing hardship to learn about the complexity and interconnectedness of poverty-related difficulties, particularly in accessing resources and education.
During the simulation, participants will fill roles in up to 26 families, each facing typical challenges. The families receive cards detailing their unique situations. They must secure food, shelter and necessities by accessing various community resources over four 15-minute "weeks."
Around 20 volunteers — preferably those who have experienced poverty — will act as resource providers, adding valuable perspectives. The Poverty Simulation Experience occurs in a large room with family groups seated in the center and resources around the perimeter.
A facilitator leads the orientation, explains the rules and answers questions. The entire activity lasts about three hours, including an introduction, the simulation and a guided debriefing for participants and volunteers to share insights.
Volunteering is important because it strengthens communities, offers significant personal benefits, improves the experience, fosters social connections and provides valuable career development through skill-building and networking opportunities.
The following are the volunteer assignments:
Helping with setup and teardown
Assisting with registration
Serving as a vendor or agency representative
Greeting and helping participants in their simulation journey
Lunch is provided for volunteers.
Simulation Dates
Friday, Oct. 24 | 1 ‒ 4 p.m.
Jerry Sue Thornton Center | 2500 E. 22nd St., Cleveland, OH 44115
