The Northeast Kansas Community Action Program, or Nok-Cap recently hosted a Poverty Simulation at The Beacon. Many different groups attended, such as a member of the ADA Council, members of the Topeka City Council, the Episcopal Diocese of Kansas, and more.

In this simulation, participants are grouped up into different families who are all under the poverty line. They have to survive for 4 weeks, and each week is 15 minutes. In order to survive, they need to be able to work and keep enough money to pay for food, rent, transportation, and health services. These services were ran by volunteers at different tables, and transportation to these tables required transportation passes, which families only had so many of.

During the event, some participants were in charge of taking care of babies, some forgetting about them and leaving them at a daycare. Some participants played the roles of felons, trying to sell drugs to others but being arrested, sometimes even under false reasons, and due to the lack of sales, began scamming others of their money.

In the last two weeks, three families were evicted, only two of them being able to reclaim their homes.

At the summation of the event, the participants claimed they were stressed, some mention how much of a pain transportation is, how much it costs and its low availability.  The participants who played the roles of dealers mentioned how due to the lack of sales through drugs, they looked to scamming, especially those who were non-native English speakers or had disabilities.

There were a lot of participants who couldn’t keep up with their rent or utilities, especially those in multi-generational homes. Some didn’t have enough food for their families, and compared it to the food pantries in Topeka, how they’ve hit a record of needing to access those food pantries.

The participants said they often felt helpless, “like an avalanche.” Times where they had the money but not the time, and vice versa.

Some of those who attended felt that the poverty simulation wasn’t enough, that it was too underwhelming and didn’t make participants really understand what it’s like to be under the poverty line, one woman even leaving.

However, the hosts felt that the event was successful, and was a start for helping the community understand the dangers of poverty.