2.8.2010: Leadership Columbia Social Services (part 4)

by Barb King

We started the morning with a poverty simulation exercise. We were each given a name, age and situation, i.e. job, no job, school, etc. and put into families. Our goal was to survive for one month. I can only speak for my family: my mother was a black man, my father a twenty-something white woman and my disabled grandfather looked just fine to me. I was a 15 year-old female that was an athlete and had a part-time job. With careful planning and flying under the radar we made it through the exercise with money left over. I had a small stint in "juvy" for bringing a weapon to school, but honestly I think I was framed. Many of our "neighbors" had it a lot rougher than we did and ended up in prison or homeless. It was a real eye opener to some of the conditions our real Columbia neighbors experience.

We split into 3 groups and headed out to visit some of Columbia's social services, I went to the McCambridge Center, Assisted Technologies Evaluation Center and Services for Independent Living. We all met back together to take a test on Social Services in Columbia. If it had not been open-book I would have flunked. And I don't think I was the only one.

Lesson learned . . . we have many different social service agencies in Columbia run by very passionate people and we need more of both.