Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Christmas Break

I've been alerted that my blog url was included in all the Christmas letters my Mom sends out, so Hello to all our family members and friends who actually made your way to my blog!  As a reminder, this blog is personal and in no way representing or speaking on behalf of my organizations.  With that said, check out the organization I work for (OASHF) and the specific program I help administer, doing outreach and trainings: (OBB)

My office is closing down between Christmas and New Years, but as a VISTA I still have hours that I have to work.  Therefore, I get the thrilling task of going through the IRS tax training called Link and Learn.  I am learning way more about taxes than I ever thought I would, but I do find it weirdly satisfying to know a lot about something that I hate, but is still worthwhile in my life.  I will conquer taxes!

Lastly, I am heading to Chicago for New Years Eve with my wonderful group of friends from college.  We went to Florida together for Spring Break and to Michigan this August, so I am beyond excited to spend NYE in Chicago with them all again. 

Happy Holidays to everyone!

Soup Kitchen Lunch

Chicken fajita soup and hamburger for lunch, yummy!  My training in Champaign County yesterday was at a homeless shelter/soup kitchen in Urbana.  For lunch, I ate with the Director of the facility and the other volunteer I was training in the kitchen. 

For this week, living in solidarity means breaking bread with people who are at the end of their rope.  I'm hoping they've all tied a knot and are hanging on!

“When you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot in it and hang on.” - Thomas Jefferson

Crazy Training Weeks

I have dreams about taxes.   About training taxes.  About missing a tax training and 15 angry people being lost and confused about taxes.   Tax season at my organization is nuts.  This week especially, we have trainings every day, sometimes two a day (taking all three people on the Central Ohio team to handle everything).  All the organizations are gearing up and they need many new people trained.

These trainings come in all shapes and sizes. Earlier this week I trained two gentlemen in Logan County at a library:
 The library reserved their "large study room" for me.  There is a possibility that I am biased just coming from Miami, where we had an amazing library with study rooms to accommodate the plethora of class groups, but I was still a little unprepared for what I found:
I didn't have enough room to capture the entire table, but there are 6 chairs in the "large study room."  Just enough room for me to squeeze around to help.

I also had a training in Pickaway County, in Circleville.  I always have trainees introduce themselves and explain what agency they are from.  In this case they were all involved with the same agency, and they all described in one way or the other how the head of the organization had strong-armed (her words!) them into coming to this training.  Hey, I don't care how they get there, as long as they are trained and can help people file their taxes for free.  I did think it was funny though.

The next training was at a facility that will stay un-named, where I found this sitting on the desk:

Finally, my training in Springfield on Monday provided these lovelies for everyone:
Christmas COOKIES!
If anyone is keeping count, I have conducted 10 trainings in the past 3 weeks, traveling a total of 490.8 miles to seven different counties in Central Ohio.

Monday, December 6, 2010

Let me eat cake. And other things.

New Desk.  New Co-worker.  Santa Clause.  Cake.  Youth for Technology.   My last couple weeks in a nutshell.

Most significantly my co-worker John's term was finished at the end of November, and he was replaced by my new co-worker.  I am eagerly teaching her the ropes, considering I am doing double duty covering all John's responsibilities and training load until my new co-worker is ready to go.  This huge transition was ushered in by an in-office desk move to the other end of the office.  I now have a bigger desk with a back wall that doubles as a bulletin board (yay!!) and I get to sit right by the window.  Also note the computer bag on my chair.  This is a newfangled fancy chair, and I have yet to figure out how to raise it high enough to be functional.  You win this time, fancy desk chair.  Also note my lovely TOMS flag on display.  I get to tell all my visitors about my favourite shoe brand and spread the social entrepreneurship love.  Sustainable models of giving.  Service in all aspects of life, that's how I see it.  It's meaningless unless you live it out.



When I train people on my programs' online tool, I take them through simulations with fake clients.  These training tools are used by thousands of people all over Ohio, and all the training is administered out of my office in Columbus.  Therefore, how could we not commemorate the birthday of our favourite fictitious training client, Alice Nelson?  We had cake!
As I said in my region's blog, please excuse the photo of a half eaten cake.  There are lots of hungry VISTAs in my office who love cake and who were not moved to the opposite end of the office.   That's another thing, my new desk is so much further away from the area where we put the free leftover meeting food.  I am going to have to be on my game...

I also went with my co-workers to the Statehouse to see the arrival of Santa Clause.  (I know him!  I know him! < Elf reference.  If you have not seen the movie Elf, you need to stop reading this and go watch it.  Immediately.)  I maintain this would have been a traumatizing experience as a small child, but I was scared of everything as a kid.  The children at the Statehouse I believe instead enjoyed the pretty flashing lights that delivered Santa.  I got a cookie out of the deal so I was fairly satisfied. 



My volunteer work with Youth for Technology Foundation is starting to picking up as well.  Naturally, this is coinciding with my actual job becoming insanely busy.  I do enjoy the chance to do something I am passionate about and specifically have a degree in.  Right now I'm helping them put together a social media strategy outline, maintain and analyze their current efforts, and interview new volunteers.
My roommate also forwarded me a job posting that had "Social Media" in the job title, which reflects an encouraging job market that is hopefully growing and eager for new hires when I am out in June.

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Face of a client


As an AmeriCorps VISTA, my work is limited to a very small percentage of direct service.  My main goal is capacity building by doing indirect service.  On a slightly related note, I am devastated to report that the star between “AmeriCorps” and “VISTA” has officially been removed from my job title.   Devastated.  RIP asterisk. 

A couple weeks ago I had a rare chance my office had to help answer our hotline calls due to one of our Foodbanks up in Cleveland hosting a Phone-a-thon and needing extra help.  After three calls from various people (mothers of 5, single man, family of 4) with different needs (no gas for the past 5 months, no income/no food, any help I can give), I answered a call from a woman in Franklin County.

When I picked up the phone I could tell she was crying.  Every time you pick up a hotline call it’s a little scary, because the person on the other end of the line is in so much trouble that they have exhausted all personal resources and called a hotline for any help they can get.  So this woman that I was connected with, through her choked up voice, started explaining to me that she lived in a mobile home park and she owned her home, but she had to pay lot rent.  She had an eviction notice on her door because she couldn’t pay her lot rent and couldn’t gather money fast enough.  She would be out on the street in two days if she didn’t pay.  My program helps people apply for benefits like food assistance, which she was already on, so I couldn’t offer her much from our resource pool for housing.   We partner with many organizations that do offer housing assistance among other things we can’t help with, but this woman had put the effort in and sought out help at these organizations, but to no avail.  The organizations she visited can’t help with lot rent, even though this was the cause of her eviction.   This situation would be a major cause of stress for anyone, but this woman spilled the rest of her complications to add on to the impending eviction.  She has depression, anxiety, and is bi-polar.  She doesn’t have enough money to pay for her medicine, so she is quite literally fighting through life every single day.  The effort to make it out of bed and to do what she needs to do is crushing, she explained.  She also was told by her doctor that her front and wisdom teeth need pulled because they are diseased and poisoning her body, slowly killing her.  Among other health problems for herself and not being able to afford ANY care, her daughter is in jail.   I was on the phone with her for 20 minutes, just lending an ear to listen, knowing the entire time I couldn’t really do anything to help.  By the end all I could give her was the number for information referral, the number of a free clinic, and the address of a homeless shelter.  It was very strange hanging up the phone with a woman who I was pretty sure in two days’ time would be standing outside her home, surrounded by her evicted belongings, barraged by mental illness with nowhere to turn. 

This was a difficult but humbling day.  It was weird window into the most burdened population.  We talk about them, we read about them, we do studies on them, we even see them.  But to have this window straight into someone’s life, a 20 minute picture of everything they are facing, and then to carry around this story is a whole different situation.  It sticks with you, and ultimately empowers.  If I ever need motivation to keep doing capacity building, to keep developing programs and making partnerships and solidifying program infrastructure, I can easily recall those 20 minutes as a call to action and a raison d'être for my position.

On my toes


If you thought the title might allude to me revealing news that I am a practicing en pointe ballerina, you will be (only slightly) disappointed.   I could have also titled this post something like “playing it by ear,” but that might make you think I am a budding musician (which, in reality I am.  Hello new guitar!) and it would also be a second cliché reference using a body part to describe the fact that in my job I “fly by the seat of my pants.”  Oops, there I go again.

I remember interviewing for this job and asking my (future) supervisor what a typical day looked like.  He couldn’t give me an answer, rather promising each day was very different.  Now that I’ve been in this position for over 5 months, I have discovered three types of a “typical day.”  They are as follows:  a) Sitting in front of my computer emailing and calling people, including various breaks to stare out the window at interesting activity down on the street.  b) Training all day.  Training is draining, so once I’ve spent 6 hours in front of a room of people yapping at them and guiding them through the software, I’m spent.  c) Traveling to meetings.   This could also be interspersed with option a (staring at computer).  Traveling to meetings could be similar to what I did this morning, which entailed me driving a mile down the road from my apartment and sharing a cup of coffee and great conversation with a fellow VISTA.  It could also be driving over an hour to an outlying county (remember, I serve 15 of them) for a 20 minute meeting.  Where perhaps the person I am meeting with tells me my program is essentially worthless.  And I thank them for their time and drive back. 

The last point is a great anecdote affirming my supervisor’s explanation way back in April when I applied.  Despite there being three basic types of days, each situation is different and challenging.   Even with each cookie cutter training, I have different counselors who have different learning styles, a different sense of humor (laugh at my corny jokes people!  Come on!), and different opinions about public benefits and government programs.    

My favorite days, surprisingly, are the days I have nothing officially planned and I can sit at my desk and work.   This days are always different, always challenging, and always keep me moving, which is very important for this job.  Communication is constantly and quickly moving, and if I don’t stay up to date with emails and phone calls the entire network  could fall behind.   My desk days also give me the ability to not only react but act, or take proactive action by strategizing and preparing for goals and projects. 

This post grew increasingly boring as it went on, but our internet is down so I can’t check my email.   See?  Crazy!  On my toes!

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Food Assistance APPROVED

Yippee! My food assistance was finally approved here in Franklin County.  Every step of this tedious, frustrating and confusing process made me thankful for the Benefit Bank.

Navigating the system = success.

http://www.oashf.org/

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Pre-Service Orientation Reflections

I stumbled upon random writings I did while at Pre-Service Orientation in Lombard, Illinois for my AmeriCorps*VISTA term.   I thought I would share highlights of what I recorded from that weekend in mid-June of this year, before I started at my organization.

The most impactful time from yesterday was the opportunity to sit in a circle and talk about our experience with poverty.  Some people had very real and honest experience in generational poverty, and I was blown away by their presence at PSO; their effort to simultaneously emerge from the cycle and their desire to help others do the same.  Others had no experience with poverty, even lacking experience discussing the issue to discover the varied causes of poverty.  These fellow VISTAs expressed they didn’t realize poverty wasn’t in just Africa, but it was an invisible problem in their backyard.  It was a curious theme, the invisibility.  Money, class, and even the state of being in poverty can be both very visible and very hidden at the same time.  I was amazed to learn that everyone saying they grew up in poverty never knew they were poor.   Their parents hid it from them, and they assured the group they would do the same for their kids.  All want a better life for their children, yet all are hiding the facts.  I wonder what would happen if these parents had honest conversations about their financial situation.  Would the kids be able to grasp it and us it as a catalyst to dream big and “get out” of the cycle?  OR would it continue to be a “this is how it is” situation, with acceptance in early childhood and complacency?  There’s always these what if questions and I always want to take action on them to see if changing the current can change the future.  I do have to remember this doesn’t stay a discussion, a theory, or a simple curious question.  It’s a life, and it’s not even my own. 

On the way home from Illinois a huge storm came through the airport.  I was in a tiny plane, stuck on the runway for about 1.5 hours.  We had to finally go back to the airport, where I happily rewarded my misfortune with an Oreo McFlurry.  When we finally boarded and were cleared for an alternate route back to Ohio, all the passengers erupted in cheers and applause.  On take-off, I kid you not, people put their hands in the air and cried “whee” as if we were on a roller coaster.  A couple minutes into the flight the stewardess told us to hold tight, she’ll be coming around with those “drinks” the guys were asking for when we were stranded.  A weird sense of community is formed in these situations, any attempt at humor is a relief from the frustration.  We were like a big, grumpy, cramped, slap happy United (Airlines) family.

Friday, October 22, 2010

By the numbers, for the people

To give you can idea of the amount of communication that is involved in my AmeriCorps*VISTA position, here is a summary in numbers:

  • Average number of emails sent daily: 28
  • Average number of emails received daily: 15
  • Number of phone calls (incoming and outgoing combined): 3-15 (depending on meetings and trainings where I can't answer my phone)
  • Average number of in person meetings/outreach per week: 4 (this doesn't count all day trainings)
I do at least one training a week in Franklin County, this week I had a second training in Clark County, meaning I trained a total of 17 people in my region just this week to be counselors.   I also got two new site notifications this week, our network is growing so fast!

Granted I am working in Franklin County so I most likely have to field more communication than some other regions, but can you imagine how many lives my program is touching if all 12 other people in my position across Ohio are communicating about the same amount with people in their regions?

Then I think about all the people who aren't being connected.  Despite all of our efforts, there are still plenty of people out there who are struggling to get by, who are eligible for assistance, yet they aren't accessing the programs that can give them a step up to self-sufficiency.

The challenge in the coming months is not to see how many more people I can meet, how many more emails I can send, or how many outreach events I can attend, but rather to communicate with the right people, strategize in appropriate ways, and attend the most relevant outreach events to get as many people connected as possible.  What is the point of putting effort into a new site if they don't have the capacity to serve clients? It's so easy to get pulled into the numbers game, talking about numbers of new sites and numbers of counselors, but it's so important the our focus here at my organization stays on how many clients we are helping through the system.

I am working on outreach strategies for some of my more rural counties, do my readers have any ideas about how you would like to see the efforts to connect low-income Ohioans to public benefits mobilized and utilized?

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Tools to Navigate the system

After fielding various phone calls from trained counselors not having a clear idea of what exactly happens to the applications once they put them through the software I train with, I can see why my supervisor wanted me to do a "counselor supplement" project.

If you consider the notion that people only hear 15% of what is said to them, and every single word that comes out of my mouth is crucial (perhaps except my corny jokes that are meant to keep people awake), we have to prepare and equip counselors to find answers to questions after they leave the training.  They go home with an entire training book, but that is designed for state-wide use and is mainly step-by-step how to use the software.  Once counselors sit down with a real person in need of real help, there is a lot more involved than just navigating the software.  They have to help their client navigate the entire public benefits system.

Hopefully this is where my supplements come in.  I am meeting with intake workers and supervisors in every single county in the Central region.  This serves a few purposes:
  • Further solidfying the relationship between the my program and JFS
  • Showing JFS that we want to work with them and are trying to help them work more efficiently with clients
  • Gives JFS the opportunity to voice concerns and create a conversation about how the our software works.
  • Counselors are assured the information I give them is current and correct, as it is straight from the intake workers.
They've been very productive meetings, and helpful for me to see the other side of the JFS office (especially after dealing with my own frustrations in getting food assistance.  Still in that battle, by the way.) 

Friday, October 15, 2010

Technology: the Good, the Bad, and the Prezi

After many tedious hours, resulting eye strain and an intimate bond with my region's blog, I have finally finished the new "Blog Tour" for my project.  You can view it if you visit OBBservations in Central Ohio.  I love that I found this presentation tool, anything beats the technology of Powerpoint at this point.

I deal with technology a lot in my position.  Going further than the fact that I sit all day in front of a computer managing Outlook and juggling massive spreadsheets in Google Docs, the entire software,y program uses to connect Ohioans with public benefits and tax credits is online.  As JFS Director Lumpkin reminded us in his remarks at the OBB Conference,
You can’t effectuate change and policy without IT.  A real player in this environment, the Benefit Bank is a  platform on the IT platform.   
I think to some people technology (in the form of computer, internet, etc) is still a luxury.  There are movements to "go without technology for an entire WEEK!"  (Could you do it?!?)  Well of course I could do it, but why?  I could go without other modernizations like a dishwasher or a car for a week, but all these things are here to help me function more efficiently, to connect faster, and to solve problems.  I don't see it as progress for progress sake, but as progress in the face of inefficiencies. It seems that I am listening too much to the industrial engineer in my life, all this talk of efficiency.   I digress...

I've concluded technology is necessary and helpful for advancement to save time and connect the world, especially in the realm of helping to connect low-income Ohioans with benefits.  But is technology only as good as the people who use it?  I have some trainees that zoom through the software and it clicks for them right away (Get it? Clicks for them? Mouse humor, heh heh). Then I have some trainees who need help figuring out how to close browser tabs and finding the address bar.  Sometimes the less computer-literate counselors are actually the most detailed and thorough counselors in helping clients.  But again, is the program only as good as the counselor who is able to navigate it?

 My new excuse for not calling Mom... (http://americanhell.com/
)
Since I was already on food assistance when I moved to Franklin County, I didn't have the luxury of using my program's software to transfer my case and I had to go in myself, wait in line (gasp!), and hand in my documents.  When I got up to the window, the intake worker said their scanner was down, so they couldn't take my verifications officially.  They have been copying everyone's documents, then scanning them later in the day.  So double work for them, and I as the client walk away with no guarantee/receipt that they got my documents.  I asked how often this technology failure happens.  She said almost every morning.  Every morning an increasing amount of people visit JFS because they need assistance, every morning their technology fails, every morning the two intake workers have to take turns walking to the very back of the building to copy documents and then remember to re-scan everything later in the day. 

Technology is fabulous.  Technology can be used as an excuse, a crutch, or for useless things.  All I know is that I can talk to friends teaching Spain and China, or doing the Peace Corps in Macedonia with technology, so I am generally currently satisfied with the way things are going :-)

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Mobile Unit Adventure


It was a great chance to get out and do direct service, especially at an event where people are already in dire straights (the event in Dayton was a "Foreclosure Prevention" day).
I also went to the Mum festival, which wasn't as targeted but we did actually see some repeats from the day before, including one woman who dragged her friend into the van so we could tell her about all the magical things the my program offers (or how she could get help paying her utility bills...choose whichever reason sounds more fun).

The Mum festival, like any small town Ohio festival (Milan Melon Fest shout out!) had an excruciatingly long parade, comprised of ridiculous floats and entries.  There were at least 3 different high school bands, an exciting appearance by Ronald McDonald, Frances Strickland (Mrs. Governor), and a Democratic Party float toting all the good things the Democratic party sponsors, which for some reason included AmeriCorps and the PeaceCorps. 

OBB Mobile Unit ready to serve at the Mum Festival

My work station inside the van

Colleague preparing to take clients

I think this was supposed to be of Frances Strickland, but I don't see her.  Oh well, look at all the people watching!

Poverty Simulation


Poverty Simulation

I walked in and was handed a name card the read “Yomelda Yarrow.”  I sat down and met my husband, “Yuri Yarow”, who was in fact my coworker Elizabeth.  We were sitting in two chairs facing each other constituting our house for the next hour.  50 other people were being assigned an alias for the simulation, sitting in home groups around the room.   Elizabeth/Yuri and I picked up the baby dolls on our pile of information and started orienting ourselves with our situation.  We discovered that I had a job but limited English skills, Yuri received a social security check, and found the babies were our grandchildren that we had to care for (due to their mother being incarcerated for drug use).  Before we began the simulation, we were introduced to the agencies represented around the room, which we would have to interact with to survive the simulation. These included: jail, police, pawn shop, quick check cashing, mortgage company, Job and Family Services, school, grocery, bank, an interfaith organization, Community Action, and an employer.   We set off to navigate a month in poverty for the next hour, with each of the next 15 minute periods representing one week.

Anecdote Summary

The first week we were able to buy food, but I forgot my grandkids kids at school.  I chased down child services, panicked after they confiscated the grandkids, trying to explain that I just got off work.   I was in line for groceries, and I was simply late to pick them up, not neglectful.  Panic is actually pretty good word to describe the entire hour (ahem, month).    The child services worker had sympathy on me as I was speaking in broken English, due to my limited language skills.  Luckily in this situation, this incapacity helped.  30 seconds earlier, while purchasing food, the cashier noticed I couldn’t speak English well and short changed me.  I’m not good at English, but I’m not dumb.  I had to demand the correct change of “40 dollars!” three times until she laid down the correct change amount for my purchases.   Most other families weren’t so diligent, and they got ripped off everywhere from the pawn shop to the check cash place.  My family was lucky enough to have a bank account, so we didn’t have to deal with the quick cash venue.  

Even knowing the assistance system, as someone who works for the Benefit Bank, and having a basis for where to get things (utility help from community action, clothing vouchers from Interfaith), we still couldn’t make it.   Some families in the simulation (and in real life, of course) are constantly fighting the tide.  Trying to claw their way back to the top.  It was almost just as bad hovering on the edge of not making it.  There is a constant panic, a constant fear of being evicted.  One little thing could go wrong and throw the entire survival system out the window.  And I use the word “system” loosely, it ended up being more of a haphazard hastily made minute-by-minute strategy.  In the 30 seconds I had to reconvene with my husband, we quickly summarized our progress (“got autoloan paid off, got a pay check, do we have enough money for the mortgage?”) and hurriedly tried to figure out how to make it the next week (“Can you fill this out during work?  As soon as you get the kids, you have to get in line for groceries…”).  The entire simulation was stressful, chaotic, panicked.

Time

The waiting was the worst.  There are a million other places you have to go including the bank to pay your mortgage and the pawn shop to try and score some extra cash, but you have to wait in line for inordinate amounts of time to take care of basic needs.  If you are not from a low-income family, think of the DMV.  Think of those lines at every place you are trying to go.  Then, I would say more than half the time, it closes before you can get up there.  Or they tell you that you are in the wrong line. Those are absolutely awful sinking feelings.  Having waited and waited for something that you desperately need (think food or paying for electric).  When every minute truly counts in this game of survival, you literally can’t afford to be in the wrong line. 

Oftentimes when a family is working poor, trying to get by day to day without financial security, they have a “here and now” mindset.  There is no guarantee of money in the future, so the strategy is to spend everything you have right now, to alleviate some pain or try to catch up.  Planning for the future isn’t an option, because the future is so unstable.  When you are hungry now, you have to eat now.  There is no thought about budgeting or planning.  Doing the simulation as a person from a middle class upbringing, there was a bit of inner discrepancy in how I approached our fake families’ month.  I know my friend Molly, also from the middle class in real life, was in the simulation “very much preparing for the future-- my 16-year-old pregnant daughter was going to social services to prepare for her baby being born in 2 months, I was trying to budget from the start rather than prioritize and make it by week-by-week.  I really believed that there was a "right" way to manage it and if I did it well I would not only get by but would also succeed.”  I think the Yarrow family tried this approach of planning during our 30 second breaks, but it ended up turning to chaos when we didn’t have the correct verification, a store was closed, or we didn’t have enough transportation resources to get somewhere.  There was no option to organize; we just had to do it.  Problem solve on the go, as we passed each other running from agency to agency.

Public Benefits

My family wasn’t on public assistance, we were just trying to work hard, pay our bills, and keep our house.  A true picture of a working poor family.  We actually knew we could get our grandkids health insurance through social services, but we didn’t have time to go wait in line and deal with the system.  We chose food, heat, and keeping our house over health security for our grandkids.  Insurance isn’t a survival part of life, but plenty of other families did have to choose between basic needs.  They chose to wait in line for feed their families, with the hope that the next week they would have enough money to pay the mortgage (and the hope that the mortgage company would have a little mercy.) 

On Edge

My colleague Molly summed it up well: I was worried about how I was going to feed my kids that week. “Even though it was a simulation I felt panicked and guilty and worried in an hour-long simulation and I was not even the worst off .”    If the Yarrows had this much trouble navigating life with their resources in this short month, I can’t imagine a real experience.  I can imagine, though, the results.  Irritability.  Bitterness.   Stress.  And that’s not necessarily hostility aimed at any institution.  It’s just a general frustration.  Why can’t I make this work, even though I am trying to do everything right?  When they came back to evicted “homes” (overturned chairs and a big ugly sign in the simulation), they witnessed the downfall of living in poverty, the result of living for the now.  It’s so easy to not plan ahead well, to not think things through completely, to make what look like stupid decision to the outside world, because you are hungry, your kids are hungry, and you have nowhere else to turn.  Might as well eat now, because who knows when you will have money to eat again.   Nothing is ever guaranteed.  Getting a job is not guaranteed.  Keeping a job is not guaranteed.  

Poverty is Relative

I was grateful that the Yarrow family wasn’t the “worst off.”  Other families had pregnant teenagers, were getting evicted or robbed, or had no family at all for a support network.  When we did the debriefing though, it seemed like no family thought they had it worst, everyone thought that there was always someone with a more dire situation.  Poverty is truly relative.  The government sets the FPIG, and therefore the poverty line is based on income.   I would argue (as I’m sure many others serving the low-income families of America) that poverty is what you make of it.  If it’s a lack of resources, what resources does your family need to survive, and which don’t you have?  My family needed food and childcare.   Other families needed lots of help to pay utility bills, or even basic employment.  If we can’t meet our basic needs and get by day to day, that’s poverty.

Relationships and Survival

Earlier in the day we learned that low income families function around a couple of principles: relationships and survival.  Comparatively, if you look at the middle class, people from this class will function around the achievement principle.   People from the upper class function around the connections they have.  With the lower class, survival is their basic drive.  Relationships can be a force that keep them in poverty (not wanting to leave comfort zone, abandon family, etc), but relationship are also crucial to survival.   If you think about it, low income families are some of the best problem solvers.   They have to be if they want to survive.  I found myself with lowered inhibitions during the simulation.  I had to get what I had to get, and I didn’t care who I had to talk to to do it.  For example, our neighbors were telling everyone around that they would babysit for transportation passes.  When there was a week when we couldn’t send our kids to school and neither of us could stay home, we desperately needed to use this resource.  They had enough transportation passes from other families so we had to trade our stereo for a week of babysitting, but what other choice did we have?  

Again from my colleague Molly -- It really does seem like a blur now that I'm looking back, but I still can't believe that my family only ate for 2 weeks and one of those weeks we only ate because some 85-year-old man overheard me talking about my troubles and gave me $15 to buy the rest of my groceries.  I felt such gratitude in that very small gesture that it almost felt real, and more than anything I wanted to pay him back or pay it forward.