Catholic Charities of San Bernardino and Riverside Counties

Catholic Charities, Community Action Partnership of Riverside County (CAP Riverside), and Kansas Avenue Seventh-Day Adventist Church are partnering to bring a Poverty Simulation experience to Riverside on Thursday, May 19th. This role-playing experience offers participants a glimpse of the reality of low-income families and their struggle to keep their heads above water with limited resources.

The simulation, which will take place at the Kansas Avenue Seventh-Day Adventist Church, provides participants with the opportunity to take on a role in the town of “Realville”. Participants are assigned a role in a family, perhaps as a single mother, an elderly person, or even a father whose wife has abandoned the family. The Poverty Simulation is an effective tool that uses role playing to create an experience of poverty where money is short and stress seems never-ending. The job of each participant is to keep a roof over their heads and meet their fiscal and family obligations during their “month” in poverty.

“This event is the centerpiece of our Community Action Month activities, which acknowledges the work of CAP agencies nationwide,” said Maria Y. Juarez, Executive Director of CAP Riverside. “The Poverty Simulation is a dramatic and motivating experience that will graphically show the challenges that our customers face on a daily basis.” Catholic Charities’ goal is to partner with other non-profits, churches and other agencies to sponsor a number of Poverty Simulations over the coming months and invite stakeholders -community leaders, and persons of influence in government and those involved in education, health care, the court system, public social services, police and others - to increase their awareness of the existing and multiple challenges and obstacles that low-income families face from day-to-day and month-to-month.

“This is the perfect time to introduce the Poverty Simulation because in this economic downturn the lines between low-income and middle-income who have lost their jobs or their homes is becoming blurred,” commented Ken F. Sawa, CEO of Catholic Charities. “The time is ripe for less stereotyping and judgment of families with limited resources and more understanding of their struggles.”