Poverty Simulation: A 36 Hour Experience, is an attempt to bring the reality of poverty and homelessness to the Aggie community. Students and community members alike will have an opportunity to experience impovershed conditions over the span of 48 hours by living outside in "family" groups.
Poverty Simulation was a definite success with about 70 participants who raised almost $1,000 for Twin City Mission!
Participants slept on a field centrally located on campus and they participated in a day of activities starting with frustrating experiences at non-profit services where due to lack of funds, resources, and facilities, they experience that the overwhelming numbers of people that need help aren't getting it. Once through the first round of services (2-1-1: like information, but for referrals to service organizations; Family Promise: a service that conducts soft/hard skils training, resume and interview wrokshops; and BVCasa where they got their drug/alcohol screenings) they proceeded to a "job interview". Upon being hired, participants went to work for the Texas A&M Physical Plant, working on landscaping or scraping gum off of trashcans. The afternoon consisted of similar rounds of waiting in line to try to get help at services like Health for All clinic and the Prenatal clinic. We summed it up with an attempt to get out of the homeless shelter by applying for HUD, which in Brazos Valley has a 2 year waiting list and is shut down due to lack of funds. The participants then slept again outside and finished the simulation this morning at 6.
Attached are the articles and videos from the Battalion and the Eagle, as well as the Refelctions journal entries from participants and the documentary Perspectives: Homelessness and Poverty that was shown during the opening ceremonies at Poverty Simulation.
Click below for the Battalion's full 4-page article:
http://media.www.thebatt.com/media/storage/paper657/news/2009/04/16/News/36.Hours.Of.Poverty-3713025-page4.shtml
And the Battalion video story:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNmlPeT53po&feature=channel_page
And the Eagle article:
http://www.theeagle.com/local/A-peek-into-a-life-of-poverty
And here is the documentary Perspectives:
http://www.davidlackeyfilm.com/perspectives.wmv
