Living in survival mode

WAUPACA – A local organization will be hosting an event that will simulate poverty and aims to help people understand the lives and choices lower socioeconomic families have to face every day.
CAP Services, a community action agency in Waupaca, will be hosting this poverty simulation event at Trinity Lutheran Church, 206 East Badger Street on March 1 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Sue Abrahamson was present at the Feb. 3 Waupaca City Council meeting to present the council with information on the upcoming event.
Abrahamson served as a librarian at the Waupaca Public Library for 28 years and has spent the last two years of her retirement heavily involved with volunteering in the community.
She said she will be making her rounds to all of the local municipalities, including the Waupaca School Board and the Waupaca County Board to invite them to the simulation.

“As a public servant … your employees deal with the diversity of our community, cultural and economic, and you deal with these people daily,” she said. “As policy makers and city council men and women it’s important to understand how systems, policies and circumstances impact access to housing, employment, healthcare and other basic needs.”
Abrahamson said while she was a librarian she attended a similar event in Minnesota that changed how she served the public.
“My middle-class experience was causing me to unknowingly judge some of a lower-economic status as poor decision makers when the realty was they were dealt a whole different hand than I had growing up,” Abrahamson said.
Abrahamson said community engagement suffers when basic needs of its citizens are compromised.
The event aims to show the challenges of living in survival mode and the complex challenges that are faced each day for families living at or below the poverty line.
The event will follow a one-month simulation where each week is broken into a 15 minute segment.
The event has room for 80 participants as Abrahamson continues to urge local policy makers to join in the event.
The program is free and open to the public. Registration is open until Feb. 25.
Those looking to participate can register by calling Abrahamson at 715-258-7688, or with the QR code found on the Facebook page at CAP Services, Inc.