Clergy and laity and friends from across Western PA are invited to participate in this event designed to increase awareness about the realities of poverty. While many policy-makers and ordinary people may know statistics about income, job opportunities and stories, unless you’ve experienced poverty, it’s difficult to truly understand.

A Poverty Simulation, led by Western PA facilitators trained in Community Action Poverty Simulation (CAPS) can help people bridge that gap from misconception to understanding. CAPS is an interactive immersion experience that sensitizes community participants to the realities of poverty.

During the simulation, participants play the roles of low-income individuals, from single parents trying to care for their children to senior citizens trying to maintain self-sufficiency on Social Security.

• Promote Poverty Awareness: During the simulation, see some of what someone in "your situation" experiences a month living in poverty
• Increase Understanding: After the simulation, you will unpack your learning and brainstorm about needed community change.
• Inspire Local Change: Together, you can be a voice to end poverty in your family, among friends and in the community.
• Transform Perspectives: The goal of CAPS is to shift the paradigm about poverty away from being seen as a personal failure and toward the understanding of poverty as structural, a failure of society.