A poverty simulation will occur in Memorial Union Wednesday.

Hailey Goplen, assistant director of civic engagement is in charge of volunteer programming connected to North Dakota State. She said the experience of the simulation as an “one-hour ‘month’ with four 15 minutes ‘weeks,’” participants goal is to survive this “month” while living below or straddling the poverty line.

Goplen said the goal of this representation is so that students feel “kind of stuck” and seeing “a lot of things working against you.”

Goplen said the simulation helps to correct assumptions about people living in poverty and is designed to be taken seriously. She said her goal of the poverty simulation is to increase students’ understanding of poverty.

“If students leave feeling a greater understanding of poverty … that’s a success,” Goplen said.

How it works

The simulation begins with participants receiving a card with a description of the family they are a part of and who they are within that family.

Based on who they are and what their card says, they need to make it through the ‘month.’

Families in the game that make very little money but still earn above the poverty line run into some problems, the game wouldn’t necessarily qualify them for social programs such as food stamps.

Some of the scenarios participants might receive are family scenarios like two grandparents raising a child because the parents have been incarcerated, an unmarried couple with a new baby, an older brother in college raising his two younger siblings or a single mother with kids.

Along with their familial role, participants also receive information about their monthly financial expenses, how much money should be spent on food and other expenses.

Players must keep their job, keep the kids in school, keep a roof over the family’s head and stay out of trouble.

Where participants run into some problems is managing their time, or choosing which area of their life is going to be put on the back burner.

For example, a week is 15 minutes, and if the character a participant is portraying is a working adult, they must spend seven of those minutes at “work.” Similarly if the participant is a child, they must spend seven of their minutes at “school.”

A problem that could occur is if the businesses or social security office is only open from nine to five, and a player’s character works from eight to six. They are then tasked with figuring out what to do, from taking time off work and losing money, or continuing to work and hoping their money will be enough.

Participants may also get a “luck of the draw” card.

This is a card with a statement that will impact how a character will function that month.

The card may simply say “you won the lottery” but it also may say “your car has broken down and needs a $600 repair.”

The purpose of these cards is to show participants that no matter how much they plan, the day still hold surprises that were unforeseeable.

The poverty simulation first took place at NDSU in the spring of April of 2015.

There will be two more poverty simulations this school year, with one occurring in February and one in April.