The poverty simulation experience is designed to help participants begin to understand what it might be like to live in a typical low-income family trying to survive from month to month.  It is a simulation, not a game.  The object is to sensitize participants to the realities faced by low-income people.

In the simulation, 40 to 85 participants assume the roles of up to 25 different families facing poverty.  Some families are newly unemployed, some are recently deserted by the "breadwinner," some are homeless, and others are recipients of TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, formerly AFDC), either with or without additional earned income.  Still others are senior citizens receiving Disability or Retirement or grandparents raising their grandchildren.  The task of the "families" is to provide for basic necessities and shelter during the course of four 15-minute "weeks."

The simulation is conducted in a large room with the "families" seated in groups in the center.  Around the perimeter are tables representing community resources and services for the families.  These services include a bank, super center, Community Action Agency, employer, utility company, pawn broker, grocery, social service agency, faith based agency, payday/title loan facility, mortgage company, homeless shelter, school, and child care center.

Volunteers (“Resource Workers”), preferably persons who have faced or are facing poverty, are recruited to staff the resource tables.  Volunteers are also recruited to assume the roles of police officer and an "illegal activities" person. Before the simulation begins, Resource Workers will have a half-hour (½) of training and reviewing materials.

The experience lasts from two and a half to three hours.  It includes an introduction and briefing, the actual simulation exercise, and a debriefing period at the end of the simulation, in which participants and volunteer staffers share their feelings and experiences and talk about what they have learned about the lives of people in poverty.