NORTH BEND — Community members from around Coos County participated in a poverty simulation Friday morning [March 15, 2019] at the Pony Village Mall in North Bend.
In an effort to gain a better understanding of what it’s like to live in poverty, participants were divided into groups of “families” and placed in various mock scenarios.
The workshop, which was hosted by the New Community Coalition, assigned each family one task: Make ends meet for a month despite being given a number of challenges typically found among low-income households.
“Our goal was to expose as many people as possible to the reality of poverty,” said event organizer Char Luther. “We want people to understand that poverty is not a disease, it’s not a failure and it’s not something people seek. It happens and we need to address it.”
As part of the workshop, each family in the simulation was given four 15-minute rounds, which symbolized a week’s worth of time, to navigate their way through a number of social service agencies, businesses and organizations to secure the services they need to meet their family’s needs.
To read the full article written by Amanda Linares, click HERE
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