Discuss “Understanding poverty through role playing”

“Will work for food.” These words are seen so often that they have almost become a cliché. Desperate, woebegone, and often dirty individuals sit on street corners and in doorways, sleeping under newspapers or in cardboard boxes, begging for food. Pittsburgh Social Venture Partners (PSVP) is a collection of volunteers dedicated to effecting long-lasting change in the community, which includes trying to stimulate support for the fight against poverty.

On January 13, PSVP organized a poverty simulation at the University of Pittsburgh’s William Pitt Student Union. Area residents from all different backgrounds, races, and family histories entered a situation in which they were forced to simulate the lives of “people on the edge,” as...