Simulations put Ƶapp students in shoes of poverty-stricken
“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view—until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.” Atticus from “To Kill a Mockingbird”
More than 100 students at Ƶapp University will do just that when they participate in a series of Community Action Poverty Simulations beginning on Valentine’s Day, Tuesday, Feb. 14.
The students will role-play individual parts in the lives of low-income families, including single moms, senior citizens, the disabled, teenagers, and more.
Students will be given assignments; for example, acquiring appropriate clothes for a job interview, finding transportation to a doctor’s appointment, or deciding to use money to pay rent or buy groceries. They will need to navigate the various barriers they encounter along the way.
Meanwhile, members of the Ƶapp community will volunteer as bill collectors, representatives of human service agencies, pawnbrokers, police officers, hospital staff, and other community members.
“These kinds of experiences show the complexity of what many of us take for granted,” said Dr. Beatriz Torres, chair of the Department of Public Health and organizer of the event in collaboration with the university’s Department of Nursing.
Torres, who is a board member of the Northwest Pennsylvania Area Health Education Center (AHEC), which is facilitating the simulations, said the experience should prove enlightening to her public health students. “We know that people in poverty have multiple medical conditions and often die early. It is so important for our students to understand the various social determinants affecting their health,” she said.
The simulations enable participants to look at poverty from a variety of angles and then to discuss the potential for change within their local communities, according to the AHEC. The exercises are designed to sensitize those who frequently deal with low-income families, as well as to create a broader awareness of the realities of poverty among policymakers, community leaders, and others.
Nursing Department Chair Nicole Moore said all her students studying psychiatric mental health nursing this semester are participating in the simulations as part of their clinical requirement. “This is going to help our students better understand many of the people they will be called upon to serve in the future,” Moore said.
In addition to Public Health and Nursing students, students from other fields of study like Criminal Justice, Religious Studies, and Social Work, who would expect to interact with people in poverty in their careers one day, are expected to take advantage of the opportunity.
The simulations take place during February and April at the Saints Peter & Paul Byzantine Church’s Parish Center at E. 34th & Ash streets.
The complete schedule follows:
- Tuesday, Feb. 14 - 9:15 a.m. to Noon
- Thursday, Feb. 16 - 3:15 to 6 p.m.
- Saturday, Feb. 25 - 3:15 to 6 p.m.
- Tuesday, April 11 - 9:15 a.m. to Noon
- Thursday, April 27 - 3:15 to 6 p.m.
- Saturday, April 29 - 3:15 to 6 p.m.