My name was Dan, and I was a 17-year-old high school dropout with a girlfriend who was 9 months pregnant. My father had just abandoned our family and we had all of $25 dollars to our name.

My mother had not worked outside of the home in years and never made it past 10th grade. Rent was due, we had no food, and my little sister was unable to pay for school supplies. This was my new reality, and it was quite a shock, to say the least.

The Library’s new Strategic Plan includes an objective to “…include members of the population who have been previously unreached.” I traveled with a co-worker to the McKimmon Center at NC State to take part in a Community Action Poverty Simulation (CAPS) in order to support this objective.

Sponsored by the State Library of North Carolina and presented by the Missouri Community Action Network, CAPS is an interactive immersive experience that promotes poverty awareness, transforms perspectives, and inspires local change. 

Librarians, school administrators, non-profit organization staff, and other social service providers from all over the state were each assigned the role of an individual in a low or no-income household.

We started off with differing degrees of cash, properties, and transportation vouchers. The existing scripts and scenarios included situations that are common to those experiencing poverty, such as unexpected job loss, chronic illness, and property repossession.

The services we all desperately needed: a grocery store, employment agency, utility company, daycare, school, and police station, etc., were represented by staffed tables set up at the perimeter of the simulation space for participants to interact with. 

The challenge for each household was simply to meet its basic needs for the duration of four, 15-minute “weeks.” It became increasingly difficult for each family to keep their heads above water, and as each week ended most of us were significantly worse off even in comparison to the bleak circumstances from which we began. 

When the simulation was over and everyone was asked to give one word that described their experience, “frustrated” and “helpless” were used repeatedly. We all understood that CAPS was not a game.

Each of these situations were based on the struggles of real people. The simulation emphasized just how many of us had direct experience with poverty and gave us an opportunity to recognize that people who are currently in this situation should be treated with compassion and understanding. 

The CAPS simulation was also an important reminder that many beneficial services are offered by local agencies, and that sometimes individuals and families in these difficult circumstances are not fully aware of the assistance available to them.

A major goal of your local public library staff is to direct community members to the places they can go to get the help and resources they need and to act as a community center, where people can make real connections with other local individuals and organizations.