At The Margin

Over the years, we've always tried to find creative ways to help our visitors and BridgeBuilders understand the depths of living at or below the poverty line in our country, specifically here in Chicago.

We've done various experiential exercises to help them tangibly understand, but there's no true way to fully grasp the gravity of living at the poverty line, or what we call The Margin.

Some groups went downtown with a bag lunch for themselves and another for a person experiencing homelessness. They would share a meal, get to know the person, hear their story, and learn why they were where they were. Others played Monopoly with less money than their counterparts to understand the challenge of trying to navigate the game with fewer resources. And some participated in an online poverty simulation game that we used.

But none of those experiences fully captured the emotional toll or the understanding that comes from going through a poverty simulation with your neighbors like the one we have now.

The Margin was created in 2020 during the pandemic, when all of our BridgeBuilders groups had to withdraw. It became the perfect time to finally execute what I had been told was a long-held desire of our ministry, creating a poverty simulation. When I first came back to Sunshine, we simply never had the time. Then time unexpectedly opened up as COVID placed everything in limbo.

I began by going through the entrepreneurial business simulations with Sunshine Enterprises to get a better understanding of how those experiences were designed. Then I walked throughout the neighborhood, researching prices and observing how businesses and stores operated within our community.

Lastly, I remembered my visits to the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. While at the museum, I was given a character card with a name and profile. As I moved through the museum, I eventually discovered whether my character survived the horrors of the Holocaust. I wanted people to have that same kind of experience during this simulation.

I wanted them to, in some way, understand the weight of the characters they were given. Our 60 simulation characters are based on real people we know, neighbors, friends, and family. We didn't use their real names, of course, but we did give them stories that were very similar to their own, if not identical in some of the tensions they faced.

The simulation became a reality in 2022 when our first BridgeBuilders group participated in The Margin. Since then, it has become an important part of our BridgeBuilders curriculum, and now we're excited to open it to the broader community. Two months ago, we hosted our first public poverty simulation, and on September 5, we'll host our fall public simulation here at Sunshine Gospel Ministries.

We would love for you to join us and experience The Margin. You'll step into the lives of different people and witness how they navigate the challenges of everyday life.
Our prayer is that this experience will foster empathy, deepen understanding, and continue building bridges between cultures and communities.

See you at The Margin.