What is the Poverty Experience?

The Poverty Experience is a professionally facilitated, hands-on simulation designed to deepen understanding of the realities faced by working individuals and families living with limited resources.

Through structured, real-life scenarios, participants make decisions related to housing, employment, transportation, healthcare, and basic needs—often under time pressure and with limited options. Each choice reflects the difficult trade-offs many individuals navigate daily.

Participants gain insight into how financial stress shapes priorities, influences long-term outcomes, and affects decision-making in ways that are often unseen or misunderstood. The simulation also explores how systems—such as housing, transportation, healthcare, and employment—intersect to shape opportunity and access, highlighting how structural barriers often influence results.

Guided reflection and facilitated discussion help participants connect the experience to their professional roles, organizational decisions, and community impact. They leave with greater awareness, increased empathy, and practical insight that can inform programs, outreach efforts, leadership strategies, and community engagement in more thoughtful and effective ways.