Challenge: Learn what it’s like to live in poverty

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 19/11/2014 (4295 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

If you’ve never been poor, it’s hard to fully imagine the day-to-day grind — the paperwork, the endless visits to various agencies, the mishaps that quickly become catastrophes.

The Free Press and the United Way want to give you a glimpse into what it’s really like to be one of the 130,000 Manitobans living in poverty.

Later this month, we’re co-hosting a poverty simulation, an evening-long role-playing game called Living on the Edge. Participants are assigned a role — perhaps a single mother or an elementary school student or someone else living in poverty — who must navigate day-to-day tasks such as sending kids to school, getting groceries, grappling with government or bank bureaucracy or trying to find work. You’ll find out how time-consuming poverty can be, how it can thwart even the best planning and how little room for compromise exists in the system.

The poverty simulations, which happen in cities all over Canada, started two years ago in Winnipeg. Since then, roughly 1,700 people, from bankers to school superintendents, have participated. Nearly all have said the experience was an eye-opener.

Please join us for the free Living on the Edge poverty simulation.