One in seven Americans citizens and one in five American children below the age of six lives in poverty.
Poverty is a serious problem in one of the richest industrialized nations in the world.
More than 4,000 ISU Extension staff and their community partners have participated in the Poverty Simulation since September 1995. This simulation helped them experience what it might be like to live in a low-income family trying to survive from month to month. Participants were sensitized to the realities of life faced by low-income people. The success of this simulation experience was due in large part to the recruitment of volunteer staffers who either have faced or are currently facing poverty. When mean scores were compared for before training and after training, there was significant improvement in understanding.