The Community Action Poverty Simulation guides participants through the lives of individuals in various socioeconomic conditions to teach empathy and understanding of their circumstances. This particular simulation was hosted for future healthcare providers that may not truly understand the depth of how poverty affects their patients.
I was individually responsible for volunteer recruitment, training, and day-of management. This included outreach to relevant student organizations and professors, in addition to creating training resources to ensure quality experiences for participants. I created a day-of itinerary and walked all volunteers through their roles and requirements on the day of the event and served as a point of contact for any additional questions or needs. Following the conclusion of the simulation, I led the volunteer debrief to discuss what they learned and realized as an essential element of the simulation, as many of the volunteers were also health science students.
WVU Health Sciences is equipped with the resources and promotional materials to advertise and facilitate additional instances of the CAPS. The program was adopted by the Office of Interprofessional Education to be run repeatedly for future classes of health science students.