A million Georgians live in poverty, trying to support a
family on less than
$15,000 a year. In a new University of Georgia
educational program, the people they rely on for help trade
places with them, at least for
one day.

Understanding must come
first

“Welcome to the State of Poverty,” a UGA Extension
Service program, shows what it’s like to live in
poverty for a month. The program
helps sensitize people who work with those in need to the
stresses of everyday living.

“One of the biggest obstacles poverty-level families
face is that the people who
work with them don’t understand what they face,” said Ann Peisher, an Extension
Service associate professor
with the UGA College of
Family and Consumer Sciences.

Peisher and others began the program in November.

Many programs to
help

New welfare reforms have many communities developing
programs and policies to help
people move from welfare to work. The UGA program is
designed to better equip community
leaders to address the issues they will face.

“There are lots of definitions for self-sufficiency,”
Peisher said.
“Typically it has an economic definition. But from a
family standpoint it’s broader.
Getting a job isn’t a big deal. Keeping a job is. We help
people acquire skills to reach a
state of well-being so they can keep a job.”

Some of the skills they teach are money managing, food
and nutrition, getting good
child care and finding and keeping good housing.

Obstacles not easily
overcome

“The two biggest obstacles these families face in
getting and keeping jobs are
child care — finding quality, affordable child care for
the shifts they work — and
transportation,” Peisher said.

“Having reliable transportation to get to a job on time
is an especially big
obstacle in rural areas, where they don’t have public
transportation,” she said.
“Even in some urban areas, public transportation is
unavailable.”

Education
vital

A lack of basic life skills will keep people from
holding onto a job after they get it.
But education is perhaps the biggest roadblock.

“Some studies have shown that if women aren’t making
more than $8 per hour, the
chances of their staying employed more than three years
are low,” Peisher said.

“The biggest obstacle in getting a high-wage job is the
lack of education,”
she said. “So you have a complicated web of obstacles.”

Helping the
helpers

Helping the people who work in agencies designed to
help these families get past the
roadblocks is what the UGA training is all about. So far,
the program has had good marks.

“We’re looking for better understanding of low-income
families and their
challenges,” Peisher said. “We’re looking for improved
community programming and
policy-making for poverty families.”

Of the people who have taken part in the program so
far, she said, more than 90 percent
say they understand the low-income obstacles better.

“In early feedback, 65 percent said they see their jobs
and the people they work
with differently,” Peisher said. “More than 70 percent
felt more able to develop
plans for community action. And more than 60 percent had
ideas they wanted to discuss with
others about community action.”

The simulation isn’t intended to actually develop those
programs and policies. It’s
designed to help people feel more able to make those
plans. It is a precursor to having
better programs and policies for low-income families.

To find out more about the training, contact the county
Extension Service office. Or
call (706) 542-1671.