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Compassion for poor is aim
Agencies sponsor a workshop to show what families in crisis go through
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Published: November 5, 2009
For the four members of the Knowles family, life is an endless round of frustration, as they struggle to pawn their camera and television to pay the bills. When an older relative who lives with them has a change in her disability payments, the family must reapply for food stamps, a process that takes several weeks.
By the end of one month, family members experience a range of emotions: anger, weariness and helplessness.
The scenario was part of a poverty-simulation workshop yesterday for employees of Crisis Control Ministry and its partner agencies. About 35 people took part in the exercise, which was held at Trinity Presbyterian Church.
Margaret Elliott, the executive director of Crisis Control, said that even though her agency is in the business of helping people in crisis meet their basic needs, it's sometimes difficult to understand what clients are actually going through
She said that the simulation would be a tool to better serve clients.
For the workshop, participants were divided into family groups and given scenarios with play money, vouchers for certain services and a long list of bills to be paid in the space of an hour's time.
They must visit such agencies and businesses as the Department of Social Services, Big Dave's Pawn Shop and Friendly Utility. Each trip to an agency or business requires a transportation token and often, a wait in a line with others who are waiting for the same service.
The Rev. Beth Templeton, the director of Our Eyes Were Opened, an outreach ministry in Greenville, S.C., conducted the workshop. Our Eyes Were Opened is affiliated with United Ministries, and its mission is to help those who work with poor people to understand and have compassion for their struggles.
"Even people who've been in the business a long time say, ‘I've done this for years and years, but I didn't think about that,'" Templeton said.
The simulation was developed by the Missouri Association for Community Action, Templeton said. Her organization has been conducting the simulation for about three years.
Templeton said that the simulation has elements of a game, with play money and cards that deliver such random twists of fate as win the lottery, break a tooth, take in a renter or have purse stolen.
But she advised people not to treat it like a game if they wanted to benefit from the workshop.
After the simulation, participants talked about how they felt as they went through the exercise.
Some of the participants said they were surprised at how tired the exercise made them feel. Others said that their frustration with arbitrary rules drove them to steal the play money or find ways to circumvent rules.
Elliott, who played the part of a 15-year-old, said that it was a relief when she was required to leave her assigned family to attend school because she could get away from the endless talk of logistics and bill paying.
For Luis Colon, Crisis Control's client services coordinator, playing the part of an 85-year-old man in poor health was an exercise in frustration, as people gave him the runaround or ignored him.
"I felt like there was no one else around me," Colon said.
"You feel like people are trying to take advantage of you."
mgiunca@wsjournal.com
727-4089
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