The United Way of Logan County hosted a Cost of Poverty Experience (COPE) to members of the Leadership Logan County group from the Chamber of Commerce and to the Student United Way Tuesday morning.
24 adults and 28 students gathered at the Lutheran Community Services on West Sandusky Avenue in Bellefontaine to experience what it’s like to live in poverty and how to make ends meet.
In the COPE program, people are divided into families and given background information about their character. Some families are making ends meet, while others are struggling to pay their mortgage. Some have issues like drug use or have a prior felony making it difficult to find a job. Diversity is included with the simulation as some families are immigrants and others may not speak english.
The program is broken down into four “weeks” of life. A week is simulated by 15 minute sessions for the participants. In these weeks, the family must live life like going to work, finding transportation if they do not have a car, paying bills, going to their probation officer, buying groceries and even dealing with health issues that arise.
During the simulation some families are thrown a curveball (just like real life) where they’re robbed or a family member gets arrested or they are evicted for not paying the rent. Others may lose their job or get in trouble for leaving their kid at home without supervision.
At the end of the four weeks, the group comes together to discuss the different problems they endured and how they felt as they proceeded through the month.
COPE is one of the most authentic poverty simulations because every family situation in the program is based on a real life person.
According to COPE, more than 40% of U.S. households struggle to afford essential needs, pushing them to make difficult decisions and take significant risks every day.
