Kenowa Hills — In lieu of a traditional professional development day before the school year began, Kenowa Hills district and building administrators, counselors and secretaries immersed themselves in a poverty education simulation hosted by Access of West Michigan.
Each staff member was assigned an identity, family, set of demographics and tasks to complete using limited funds and resources.
Access of West Michigan employees, with firsthand experience of poverty, ran the simulated employment office, pawn shop, grocery store and homeless shelter.
While paying rent at the Mortgage and Reality station, Xiomara Flores, a single mom of two kids role-played by Kenowa Hills High School Assistant Principal Charlie O’Dell, received alarming news.
“Mom! We just got evicted,” exclaimed 15-year-old Noehmi Flores, played by district building Administrative Assistant Kristin DeGroot.
“But I’m paying the mortgage right now,” said O’Dell. “Call our landlord and have them give us more time.”
The simulated experience served as one of many examples of the day-to-day realities of life in poverty.
Amani Perkins, Access of West Michigan’s poverty education manager, said the workshop is designed to provide insight into the barriers faced by low-income individuals, and also to highlight how many factors can impact one family’s situation.
“People look for the root cause of poverty — lack of employment, child care, transportation — but it’s so many things, it’s not just one thing,” Perkins said. “(Poverty) looks different for everybody.”
She added: “Poverty is a well-oiled machine designed to sustain itself with no one driving. You can work as hard as you want and still make it nowhere.”
An Exercise In Empathy
Following the simulation, staff members broke into small groups to debrief and hear about experiences of Access employees. Role-players discussed their frustration over their circumstances; the lack of time, money and childcare; and how their struggles mirrored real life.
Perkins explained the main goals of their programming: “When we gain knowledge, we gain empathy. The more we invest ourselves in different communities and cultures, then we as a people can come together and help each other and love each other despite our differences.”
Perkins also connected the takeaways to how some students’ circumstances mean they must simultaneously navigate adult and student responsibilities.
Said one volunteer: “School is the place students relate to other people when they cannot relate to their parents or families.”
Brooke Davis, the district’s director of diversity, equity, and mental health services, said she organized the simulation to serve as a learning opportunity for staff members who may not regularly interact directly with families.
“The way we show up matters,” she said. “Sometimes when parents get angry it’s because they don’t understand the process, but we still have to treat them like a person.”
Superintendent Jerry Hopkins said participating in the simulation helped everyone try to walk in someone else’s shoes.
“We want every family to know they’re the most important family that we’re serving, and that we’ll take as much time as we need to make sure that they have the best experience they can,” he said.
“I hope we can reflect on the experiences we had today before we make assumptions about appearances, (and) that we stop and think about the challenges, rephrase questions and listen a little bit more.”
Read more from Kenowa Hills:
• Let’s meet up: twice-weekly gatherings build connections
• Districts eye more ‘normal’ financial pictures due to end of ESSER funds
