The Challenge of Living in Poverty: A Simulated Experience

​Building on research by Smith-Carrier et al. (2019), this workshop by Lea Tufford and Tracy Smith-Carrier will immerse participants in a poverty simulation simulating a month walking in the shoes of a real Canadian family living with low income today. Following each “weekly” prompts participants must budget, pay bills, search for food and essentials, and access health or community services, while contending with emerging challenges (like caring for a sick child, dealing with an eviction). The 1.5-hour workshop will involve a one-hour simulation, and a 30-minute reflection and debriefing session. Harnessing the tool’s experiential design, participants will learn about the systemic and structural barriers persons living in poverty in Canada face today, and the solutions that could potentially remedy them.

​Bio: Tracy Smith-Carrier is a professor and the Canada Research Chair in Public Policy for the Common Good in the School of Culture and Society at Royal Roads University in Victoria, BC. Dr. Smith-Carrier’s research touches upon many different fields in the social policy arena including access to income and food security, social assistance receipt, disability justice, intersectional disparities, health in/equities, universal design, and basic income. They are an adjunct research professor at the Arthur Labatt Family School of Nursing at Western University, an associate professor (status only) at the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work at the University of Toronto, a research affiliate at the Centre for Human Rights Research at the University of Manitoba, chair of the National Strategic Planning Committee for a Basic Income Guarantee, and an editorial board member of the Taylor & Francis journal Critical Policy Studies.

​Bio: Lea Tufford is a professor in the School of Social Work at Algoma University in Brampton, ON. Dr. Tufford’s research focuses on social work education, child abuse and neglect, ecosocial work, and contemplative practices. She has published extensively in simulation-based teaching and research. Dr. Tufford is the author of Child Abuse and Neglect in Canada: A Guide for Mandatory Reporters by Oxford University Press and a co-author of Trauma-informed Care in Social Work Education: Implications for Students, Educators, Pedagogy, and Field by Routledge.