On Feb. 19, I found myself unable to pay rent and provide food for myself or my child… was arrested for attempting to sell illegal drugs and put in jail. This meant I was separated from my 1-year-old son and completely unaware of what would happen to him. Even though I experienced all this as part of a simulation known as COPE, I started to empathize with my character and feel her stress during the 2.5-hour program, which was part of BCC’s Civility Week programing.
Poverty is a condition in which individuals or communities lack financial resources and access to necessities, such as food, shelter, education and healthcare. It can be caused by a variety of factors, including unemployment, lack of education, economic inequality, poor governance and systemic social issues. For a person who has never experienced these things, it can be hard to wrap their head around the reality and severity of someone else’s situation.
The Cost of Poverty Experience, or COPE, is a simulation created by Think Tank: Rethink Poverty, a nonprofit organization based in Ohio that has created an interactive experience designed to help others get a glimpse into the lives of low-income individuals and families living in our communities. Within this experience, participants make decisions that have a direct impact on a variety of everyday life situations that a person struggling with poverty might encounter.
My experience with COPE was quite unique. In the simulation, participants are put into groups of two to four together as a “family” or placed individually. I was given the role of Iris, a 19-year-old African American, single mother to a 1-year-old son. Iris was not currently enrolled in any form of schooling, neither did she hold a job with a steady income. The information given to me was that Iris, while not being an inherently bad person, was selling drugs on the street to make money to pay for her housing and provide for her baby.
Iris also did not possess institutional knowledge about facilities and systems in place to help her get out of her dire situation. I was able to portray this and feel her stress, as the only information given to me in the simulation was that I had to try to sell drugs, represented as sugar packets, to other participants. I was told to target participants with teal-colored name tags, because these individuals had a history of drug addiction.
Finding it difficult to sell drugs and make any money at all, I was forced to attempt to pawn off household items for petty cash to provide for my son. Even then, it was not nearly enough. I, as Iris, found myself unable to pay rent and provide food for myself or child. In addition, I was arrested for attempting to sell illegal drugs and put in jail. This meant I was separated from my 1-year-old child and completely unaware of what would happen to him.
Even though this was just a game/simulation, I did start to empathize with Iris and feel her stress. For me, it was a simulation, but this situation is unfortunately all too frightening and real.
Poverty among single Black mothers with young children is a significant concern in the United States. In 2022, single mothers had a poverty rate of 28 percent using the government-created poverty measure. Single, Black mothers experience higher poverty rates, with 31 percent living below the poverty line. For mothers under the age of 20, a startling 45 percent live below the poverty line, unable to provide for themselves or their child.
The fact is that various systems and programs have been implemented to alleviate poverty, particularly for vulnerable populations such as single mothers, minority populations and children. These systems generally focus on financial support, access to healthcare, housing, education and job opportunities. The reality is, many of the people that these systems are put in place to help don’t know the programs exist. Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) provides financial assistance to low-income families, particularly those with children, to help meet basic needs. It is typically provided for a limited time and encourages employment and self-sufficiency.
The Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as Food Stamps, helps low-income individuals and families purchase nutritious and necessary food. This was one of the programs put in place during COPE’s interactive experience, but not many people in the simulation were able to use it simply because they didn’t know what it was and what it could provide. I learned that one of the biggest problems of poverty is a lack of knowledge and information on how to get out of it.
There are affordable housing programs out there to assist individuals and families that live in poverty and may be faced with eviction, constantly having to move around and not being able to afford a stable home. This was particularly relevant in my experience with COPE. My path in the exercise was through not having money to provide for my (Iris’) son. This led me to turn to selling illegal drugs, ending up in jail and losing the ability to provide for the very thing that I was trying to protect. This is a harsh reality for single parents, especially ones under the age of 25, who are on their own without any counseling and assistance from people with more life experience.
The same can be said for the ability to gain affordable childcare and healthcare. Most single parents under 25 don’t possess the knowledge to find these crucial services. For single parents who can attend college, Pell Grants are available as well as other financial aid to help pay for college education but often those who need these resources don’t know where to look
It is crucial that more and more systems are put in place to raise awareness and lower these numbers nationwide. Even in a community like Monmouth County, situations like the one I experienced as Iris are real and happening with much of the community completely unaware.
If you had told me before this experience that this was happening in an area like Monmouth County, a county where the average income is well above the median, I would have said there’s no way. COPE was able to raise my awareness about these situations and how real and close to home they can be.
Brookdale plans to host additional COPE sessions this semester. For more information about COPE visit https://thinktank-inc.org/cope.
