Chaos at Miami Hami

50: About the number of people who participated in the poverty simulation yesterday.

Yesterday at about 1:30, Kaitlyn and I drove out to Miami University Hamilton, but for once we weren't doing a training! We were asked by the VISTA there, Jessica Reading, if we would help them out with a poverty simulation, like the one I went through in December. This time, though, I had a chance to be on the other side of the frenzy.

My booth was the General Employer's office, so it was my job to check everyone in who was fortunate enough to have a job, take their transportation passes, hand out their "job assignments" and distribute their checks at the end of their shift (which was seven minutes long).

Kaitlyn sat at the table next to me. She was the schoolteacher, and she was in charge of taking in people grades K-college, handing out assignments and homework, and giving them slips of paper telling them to bring in a few dollars for field trips, class projects, school supplies, etc.

Kaitlyn sits at her "classroom" and waits for her students to arrive

Did I ever mention that my sister works at Miami Hamilton? She has the extremely awesome job of coordinator of student activities. She gets to plan student events, like cornhole tournaments and pizza tastings, in her day's work. But today we got to work together, because she was participating in the simulation as the owner of "Big Dave's Pawn Shop"!

Meet my sister, Jen Moning! (I mean Jen O'Brien!)

Anyway, as the General Employer, I had a lot to keep track of, so I might have been a little overwhelmed at times. Only six people out of eight showed up on time to work in week 1, so I had to fire two people right off the bat. (My rule was that they had to be at work for at least half the time). Fewer people showed up with each week, and by week 4 I had only two employees, though I had more applications than I knew what to do with. Only one person showed up to work on time every week.

It didn't take long for me to recognize the feelings of anxiety, despair and panic that I felt when I went through this simulation back in December. The entire room was chaos. I really hated firing people, especially the people who lost their job for the same reasons I lost mine when I was playing Cindy Chen (not enough transportation passes). The sad thing was that most people didn't really put up a fight when I told them they lost their job. The conversations would mostly go like this:

THEM: I'm here for work!

ME: Well, work just ended, so I'm afraid you're fired.

THEM: Fired?! Well, crap. *scampers off*

Everyone just had too much to keep track of to actually fight for their career. There was one girl who was late in the first week of work who I had to fire, but she showed up the next day anyway and begged for another chance, so I cut her some slack. She was always on time after that, though she did try to steal a stack of my transportation passes. Strike two.

Everyone scrambles around the room trying to get their bills paid, their families fed, and their homes secure. This is the room where we had the simulation.

I was a little surprised by the amount of theft that went on in this simulation. In the one I was in in December we had a little, but this was insane. People were yelling "SHERIFF!" all over the place. The "thief," played by my sister's friend and co-worker Annie, actually tried to rob the bank. There was some kind of shoot-out at the school, but I didn't really get a good look at it. People were stealing from their neighbors and taking up jobs as drug dealers left and right.

And of course, most of the chairs in the room were turned upside down by the end of the day.

Chairs that were turned upside down symbolized that that family has been evicted

This crowd is the line for the homeless shelter--which quickly became too full to accept anyone else.

At the end of the simulation, everyone righted their chairs and sat in a circle for a group discussion about their experiences, led by Amanda Cowgill, National Service Coordinator for AmeriCorps*VISTA.

Amanda leads a discussion about what everyone experienced in the simulation

All of the participants were constantly reminded that this was not a game; it was a simulation, meant to increase our knowledge, understanding, and awareness of the challenges of living in poverty. I think everyone got it. I think it was around week 3 when one of my few employees looked around at the chaos in the room and said to me, "This is heartbreaking."

I'm glad I was able to do this simulation again, because it's always good to see the effects of what you're doing. I think by the end of the simulation, everyone had a better idea and respect for what people living in poverty have to go through.

In closing, here's a video of the participants near the end of the simulation, picking up their chairs and such to get ready for the group discussion. Is it just me, or do they look kind of exhausted?