This past October, students in three of Black Hills State University-Rapid City (BHSU-RC) Assistant Professor of Sociology Dr. Lesleigh Owen’s sociology classes participated in a Poverty Escape Room and Poverty 101 workshop funded by the John T. Vucurevich Foundation.
The Poverty Escape Room encouraged participants to experience the barriers, stressors, and everyday realities that people living in poverty face, while the Poverty 101 workshop explored the dynamics and myths of poverty to create a shared understanding of the traumas that accompany it.
According to the Poverty 101 workshop, 40% of United States citizens are working poor. For individuals who are insulated from poverty, events like these can fosterempathy, and for those who have experienced poverty, these workshops can feel validating.
"Taking students to events like this turns a class like Social Problems into something relatable and humanizing,” said Dr. Owen. “Every moment we are learning, we should learn how to make the world a better place and create good."