Provide insight into the realities of navigating financial constraints and making difficult choices with limited resources. Through interactive simulations, you will reflect on decision-making processes, challenges, and potential policy solutions that could create more equitable opportunities.
1. Visit the Websites and engage with the simulations
. explore the “Musical Chairs of Poverty” simulation.
, explore the “It’s Just Stuff. Until You Don’t Have It” simulation.
, explore the “ALICE” simulation.
2. Complete Simulations
Choose and complete at least two different simulation scenarios.
You may repeat a simulation as long as you make different choices each time.
It is recommended to spend about 15 minutes per scenario and space them out over 2-3 days for deeper reflection. However, you may complete them all at once if that works best for you.
Pay attention to the decisions you must make, the trade-offs involved, and the emotions that arise.
3. Write Diary Entries
After completing each simulation, write a short diary entry (150-200 words) reflecting on your experience. Consider:
What choices did you make, and what influenced those decisions?
What trade-offs or barriers did you encounter?
How did the experience make you feel?
What insights did you gain about the challenges people may face when managing limited financial resources?
By the end, you should have two separate diary entries capturing your reflections.
4. Final Reflection
At the end of the week, write a final reflection (third) summarizing your experience:
What new perspectives or insights did you gain?
What aspects of the simulations resonated with you, whether based on personal experience, prior knowledge, or new learning?
How do these experiences connect to social work policy and systemic barriers?
Propose a policy intervention to address one of the challenges presented in the simulations. Your proposal should be:
Relevant to the experiences shown in the simulations.
Feasible (a policy that could realistically be implemented).
Connected to your reflections and grounded in social work values.