BARRHEAD - Poverty is not just a big-city issue. It also exists in rural communities, and Barrhead and District Family Community Support Services (FCSS) want to give a wide variety of people an idea of what it is to live under the poverty line as much as possible without having them experience it firsthand.
(Editor's note: The event has since been cancelled due to low attendance.)
On March 1, at the Barrhead Composite High School, FCSS, in conjunction with the United Way, will host a poverty simulation.
Community development and volunteer coordinator Darin Flemer said they have been working with the Alberta Capital Region's United Way for several months to bring their poverty simulator to the community.
"The simulation is a role-playing experience, and each of the participants will be given one of 26 characters to play, each of which has low-income challenges ranging from being a single parent to a senior on a fixed income or someone receiving [assured income for the severely handicapped payments], and through the simulation they will go through the full range of encounters of providing food, shelter and other basic needs for themselves, and any others in their fictional family given their limited income," he said, adding United Way staff will be conducting the simulation.
"The idea of the simulation is to give the participants a better idea of what it is like to live in poverty, how many it affects and what those effects are."
If enough community members volunteer, the simulation will occur on Friday, March 1, at Barrhead Composite High School in one of the gymnasiums from 1 to 4 p.m.
Flemer said FCSS has been busy canvassing the community to make sure they get enough volunteers and ensure a good cross-section of residents representing all walks of life, from police, teachers, agency workers, government workers, business owners and others are represented.
If, for some reason, they do not get enough volunteers, or even if they do, Flemer says FCSS hopes to run the simulation again, stating it is vital for residents to realize the struggles people with limited incomes face daily, reiterating it is an issue that many Barrhead families are going through.
FCSS noted last year, 270 families visited the Barrhead Food Bank, and according to the 2023 Alberta Provincial Housing and Service Needs Estimation survey published by the Alberta Rural Development Network (ARDN) and conducted by FCSS, Ripple Connection Support Services (RCSS), and the Barrhead and District Social Housing Association (BDSHA) showed that 128 respondents reported that their housing situation was insecure with 61 per cent reporting that they were employed.
The ARDN is a not-for-profit organization created in 2009 by partnering with the province's 21 public post-secondary institutions. Its mandate is to support rural sustainability through a wide variety of initiatives.
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