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Photo: Community Action Partnership North Dakota

JAMESTOWN, N.D. (NewsDakota.com) – Poverty remains a serious situation for one out of every nine families in North Dakota.

Community Action Partnership North Dakota (CAPND) conducts poverty simulations to large groups for educational purposes. These simulations provide participants experience and understanding of what it might be like to live in a typical low-income family trying to survive month-to-month in North Dakota.

Andrea Olson is the Executive Director for the State Association.

Participants must then pay their bills on time to provide shelter and security for the family, find adequate childcare for children, get to work on time in order to get paid, and find ways to pay monthly bills on time among many other challenges.

The simulation can accept between 44 to 80 participants in the roles of up to 26 different family members facing poverty.

Olson stresses this is not a game, but an interactive learning experience using real life situations for real families CAPND works with.

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 participants. These services include a bank, super center, Community Action Agency, employer, utility company, pawn broker, grocery store, social service agency, faith-based agency, payday and title loan facility, mortgage company, school, police department, and daycare center.

The experience lasts from two to three hours and includes an introduction and briefing, the actual simulation exercise, and a debriefing period 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.

The simulation is free and open to anyone who wishes to attend on April 4th from 9 AM to 12 PM at the Gladstone Inn & Suites.

Registration information is available on the Community Action Partnership North Dakota Facebook page or by calling 701-252-1821. Registration will close Friday, March 25th.

Listen to a full Let’s Talk About It with Andrea Olson below: