In observance of Fair Housing Month, the Human Rights Section of The Jacksonville Bar Association and the United Way will host a creative and eye-opening poverty simulation event from 5:30-8 p.m. April 18 at Florida Coastal School of Law.
The JBA has applied for two ethics CLE credits for the event. Attorneys will gather in the Florida Coastal atrium to experience the daily challenges faced by families who struggle to provide themselves with the most basic needs.
The cost is $50 per person and a simple dinner, beer and wine will be served.
Proceeds will benefit Jacksonville Area Legal Aid.
United Way organizations nationwide facilitate the poverty simulation events to portray typical scenarios experienced by low-income people.
Our local United Way regularly provides the simulation for boards of nonprofits, student groups and Leadership Jacksonville classes. Forty-four to 80 participants assume the roles of members of families experiencing poverty.
The families are seated in groups at the center of the meeting space and community resources line the perimeter of the room to represent goods and services available to the families in need. Resources include a supermarket, an employer, a utility company, a school, a child care center, a community-action agency, a bank, a grocery store, a social-service agency, a faith-based agency, a payday and title-loan facility, a mortgage company and a pawn broker.
Volunteers assume the roles of people employed at these community resources.
Some family groups will be homeless, newly employed or seniors receiving disability or retirement benefits.
Some families will be grandparents raising their grandchildren and others will recently have experienced a great loss, such as desertion by the original income provider of that family.
Families may be recipients of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, either with or without additional earned income.
The challenge is for the heads of the households to provide basic necessities for their families during four, 15-minute "weeks."
The simulation lasts an hour and is followed by a debriefing period.
Participants and volunteers will discuss insights gained during the simulation; options for overcoming some of the barriers low-income families face in Northeast Florida; and ways we, as attorneys, can make a difference in manageable and productive ways.
For parents of young children, free child care will be available and children will be served a pizza dinner.
The Human Rights Section of The JBA encourages all attorneys to attend this important event.
We all benefit when families are stabilized in our community.
Simply visit jaxbar.org to register for "Poverty: A Reality NOT a Game."
Attorneys interested in pro bono opportunities throughout the 4th Circuit are encouraged to contact Kathy Para, chairwoman of The JBA Pro Bono Committee, [email protected].