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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Showing Kentuckians What Poverty is Really Like

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Thursday, April 29, 2010   

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Kentuckians hear a lot about how the state ranks high on the list of residents living in poverty, but what's not so clear is what it would really be like to be in a poor person's shoes. An exercise this week helped participants get up close and personal with poverty and experience having little to no income, perhaps being a single parent on public benefits, or someone with health ailments and no insurance. The Poverty Simulation gives participants fake money and real scenarios as they experience a week's worth of poverty in one hour.

Jennifer Belisle, deputy director of the Northern Kentucky Community Action Commission, says the simulation offers a way for people to focus on the day-to-day struggle many Kentuckians face.

"They want to keep a roof over their heads, keep their bills paid, get to work, get their children to school, perhaps apply for social services."

Poverty simulation can address questions about what leads to poverty and what keeps people there, Belisle says.

"The poverty simulation has a homeless shelter in it, and there are families that are living in the homeless shelter who work and who have income. That's very typical in our community in northern Kentucky and in communities around the state."

Belisle says poverty simulation always creates a dialogue among participants, but ultimately, action is the goal.

"For school personnel, maybe it's an awareness of what happens to the poor children in their classrooms after they leave school at the end of the day. For leaders in the community, perhaps it's an awareness of how public policy can be changed."

Kentucky's poverty numbers are some of the worst in the nation. In 2008, more than 17 percent of residents lived below the poverty line - the third worst ranking among all states. Many of those same people live in homes considered to be "food insecure," where adults skip meals, children cannot concentrate in school because they are hungry and seniors get sick because they do not eat enough nutritious meals.

More information is available from Community Action Kentucky, 800-456-3452.





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