By Sam Borsato - @BorsatoSam on Twitter

Lethbridge United Way breaking social barriers with poverty simulation

Oct 18, 2016 | 4:57 PM

LETHBRIDGE – A group of 80 participants and 20 volunteers from the University of Lethbridge came together on Tuesday (Oct. 18) to understand what it’s truly like to live in poverty.
 
It was all part of a simulation, put on by the United Way of Lethbridge and southwestern Alberta, to mimic the situations that many people are faced with every day.
 
Groups were broken up into different family categories, like single parents, couples with no children and people who live alone. Each family then had to come up with a plan to maintain a job, apply for loans or social services, support children, purchase a home and much more with limited money and time.
 
All factors came with real life consequences, as well. For example, if participants couldn’t purchase a transit card, they weren’t able to visit the doctor, or could even be faced with losing their job if they happened to be late.
 
Trudy Carrels, Executive Director for the United Way, explained that this program is a meaningful way for students to connect.
 
“There is, without a doubt, a great percentage that could be in a poverty scenario. It will make them acutely aware of their own situation, or the person that’s maybe in that situation. If we do anything to break down that inhibition to want to share that, we’re doing good things.”
 
She would like to continue it in the future, too. Carrels views it as a way of breaking down poverty barriers among younger generations, and works towards better community support.
 
“We all have preconceived ideas and perspectives of what we believe poverty is, and we evaluate based on those judgements,” she noted.
 
“We want them to become aware of what things factor into not only where a person is in poverty, but what’s keeping them in that so we can help address those things and turn them around.”