Coming soon to Belle Haven and GCC?
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participants will be forced to choose the one on the right
Affluent Chicago suburb to host poverty simulation event at ritzy private country club
The city announced on Tuesday it's hosting the event in partnership with the Alliance for Human Services, Family Focus, Moraine Township, and the Highland Park Community Foundation. The goal of the event is to increase “residents’ understanding and awareness of what it is like to live in poverty in Lake County.”
The city is partnering with social services professionals from Highland Park and Lake County to offer this immersive experience to raise awareness of the need for resources to support individuals experiencing economic insecurity, and the wide-ranging consequences of this systemic inequity on families and communities. Programs such as this one, which are developed and presented by social services professionals, are intended to bridge that gap.
The city explained the upcoming event in detail on its Facebook page.
The City of Highland Park is partnering with the Alliance for Human Services, Family Focus, Moraine Township, and the Highland Park Community Foundation to host a poverty simulation event to increase residents' understanding and awareness of what it is like to live in poverty in Lake County. The simulation will be held on Saturday, September 9, 9:00 - 11:30 AM at the Highland Park Country Club (1201 Park Ave. W.) Register: https://www.eventbrite.com/.../poverty-simulation-event...
Participants in this immersive experience will begin to experience what a "month” in poverty feels like. Participants are put into situations in which they do not have enough resources and are forced to make difficult choices that can negatively impact them and their families. The outcome is increased awareness of the need for resources to support those living in poverty to create a more resilient health, human, and education sector in our local area. Participation is free, but registration is required.
“Of course, the ‘experience’ will last only two and a half hours, not a full month”, City Manager Ghida Neukirch conceded to FWIW, “but it will give our participants a taste of what it’s like to have to stretch those Food Stamp dollars: artificial caviar — vegetable oil, fish stock, and gelatin powder, with just touch of squid ink — will be served on Ritz crackers instead of Carr’s, for instance, and Velveeta will be found on those little toothpicks, not organic Beaufort d’Ete — you get the idea, and so, I hope, will our guests. Our goal is to deepen their sense of liberal guilt, while leavening it with a dash of virtue glow, so that they’ll return home with a renewed determination to raise taxes on their lessers in the middle class section of town. It’ll be a fun event, so come join us, but please: designer jeans, not Carhart. There are still standards to be maintained, you know.”
