The results at the end of the poverty simulation staged last week in Siren showed how frustrating and depressing such a life can be.

To help the 58 attendees understand more completely what life in a family with limited resources is like, a one-hour poverty simulation was part of the event.

Each of the attendees was assigned a role to play as a member of one of the 15 families whose real life situation they would portray for four one-week segments. Each played a family in the exact situation described for the participants.

Each family was given a residence (their table), money, travel vouchers, and all pertinent information relative to the family. Every participant was given a role to play, from a young child to a grandparent.

Available to each family were institutions, including a bank, utilities office, school, mortgage company, pawn broker, etc. Present in the community there was a drug dealing thief and a police officer.

Travel vouchers were required to go from home to the various institutions to take care of the necessities of life.

As each of the four weeks progressed, covered in 15-minute segments, each family had to cope with the many problems that families in this situation have on a continuous basis.

“I had to steal from our neighbors to get us travel vouchers,” said one nine year old boy.

“When I couldn’t pay the mortgage, the lender propositioned me,” lamented a mother. “I’m still thinking about it because we have to have a place to live,” she went on.

“After the thief took our things we had nothing and we were in trouble,” said a father of his family.

Not one of the 15 families had improved their financial situation over the four week period.

Most were in danger of losing their home. Some had turned to drugs while others had turned to drug dealing.

The drug dealer-thief was arrested, but broke out of jail and became even more dangerous.

Social workers, educators, elected officials, health care providers, and the sheriff’s department were invited to the event, which was led by Marilyn Kooiker, from Burnett County UW-Extension.

The purposes of the event were to help develop a new understanding of what it is like to live in a limited income family, to discover and learn about the prevalence of poverty in Burnett County and the resources available, and to network with others serving at-risk families in the community.

In Wisconsin 8.7 percent of the population live below the poverty line. In 2002, the federal poverty line for a family of four was $18,100.

In Wisconsin 8.9 percent of the population is food insecure. Food secure households have enough food at all times for an active healthy life.

In Burnett County 12.8 percent of the population participated in the FoodShare (Food Stamp) Program in 2007.  The percent of child population receiving FoodShare in 2007 for Burnett County was 26.1 percent.

From the program held in Siren, attendees learned about some key issues.

•Clear communications between organizations and from the organizations to those in need is inadequate and adds to the problems of the poor.

•Affordable and available transportation is lacking and is essential to the welfare of the low income family.

•Many low income families are not aware of the availability of all the services in the county.

•Some institutions/businesses take advantage of the low income families and it goes unreported.

To learn more about how you can help or if you are in need of help contact the Burnett County UW-extension office.