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Virtual Poverty Simulation Resource Guide

Introduction

Purpose of the Simulation: The UAB Virtual Poverty Simulation helps participants better understand the realities of living in poverty by simulating a month in the life of a low-income family. It is not a game, but a powerful learning experience designed to foster empathy and awareness.
Purpose of this Guide: This library guide provides curated resources to support simulation participants before, during, and after the experience. It extends learning into action by offering reflection tools, volunteer opportunities, multimedia resources, and policy engagement strategies.
How to Use This Guide: Students, faculty, and community members can use this guide to prepare for the simulation, reflect afterward, and find ways to stay engaged in anti-poverty work through research, service, and advocacy.

Understanding Poverty

What Is Poverty?
- From the Social Work Dictionary: The state of being poor or deficient in money or means of subsistence. Various types include absolute poverty (below a subsistence level of income) and relative poverty (below the living standard of the person's mainstream community). People who are impoverished may be considered transitional poor (a brief, temporary poverty related to specific events in one's life or environment), marginal poor (moving in and out of poverty because of job insecurity, inadequate skills, or limited education), and residual poor (long-term and intergenerational poverty.
- 12 Myths and Misconceptions about Poverty around the World - Global Citizen
- Poverty Guidelines (U.S. Dept of Health and Human Services) for 48 states and DC
Impact of Poverty
- Family Poverty - Wiley Blackwell Companion to the Sociology of Families
- Social Causation of Disease - Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Health, Illness, Behavior, and Society
- Hunger and Poverty in America - Food Research & Action Center
- United Nations
  - Guiding Principles on Extreme Poverty
  - Sustainable Development Goal #1 - End poverty in all its forms everywhere

Poor Kids (2012)

Spent: Looking for Change

Spent: Looking for a Change

Last Updated: Oct 28, 2025 3:16 PM
URL: https://guides.library.uab.edu/c.php?g=1488595
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Subjects: Economics, History, Justice Sciences, Social Work, Sociology