Learning Opportunities
Half Day:
Game of Life, Food Stamp Lunch Challenge. $10 per person.
Full Day:
Game of Life, Food Stamp Lunch Challenge, Penny Game and Downtown Walking Tour. $20 per person.
Half Week or Week:
Education activities include the Game of Life, Food Stamp Lunch Challenge, Penny Game, Downtown Walking Tour, Formerly Homeless Speaker and Denver Hunger Meal*.
*The Hunger Meal must be scheduled individually at additional cost. Food is not provided.
The Game of Life:
The Game of Life is a fun and interactive experience that gives participants the opportunity to adopt the identity of a real family for one month. Each family is living in poverty and on the brink of homelessness. Participants need to make some tough, yet realistic and creative decisions in order to survive. Do we buy diapers or food? What happens if we can’t pay the rent? Where do our children go when we're at work? These are some of the many questions participants must answer as they take on life's unique challenges each day. Can you survive the game of life? Cost Onsite: $7 per person*, Cost Offsite: $100 for up to 30 participants, $150 for 30 participants or more.
*Additional travel charges may apply for groups outside the Denver Metro Area.
Food Stamp Lunch Challenge:
The Food Stamp program is designed to help individuals and families pay for a portion of their food needs. However, it rarely provides enough. In the Food Stamp Lunch Challenge, your group has the opportunity to work individually or together to find lunch based on the average individual allotment per meal on Food Stamps. On Site: $5 per person. (Not available off-site.)
Penny Game:
The Penny Game gives a glimpse of the many ways some of us start out ahead of the rest. This activity and discussion help your group make sense of your relationship to those who need help and the guilt one sometimes feels in being privileged enough to do so.
Formerly Homeless Speakers:
All of DenUM’s speakers have personal experience with homelessness and poverty at some point in their lives. They are willing to share their stories and answer questions. Cost: $50
Downtown Walking Tour:
This tour takes place in an area of Denver that has a high concentration of nonprofits working with homeless and low income families in Denver. It is also an area of redevelopment, with million dollar lofts overlooking those sleeping on the streets. The clash between these two drastically different socio-economic cultures has caused some conflict in the Denver community. The group will discuss these issues along with the services that agencies in this area provide during the tour. Cost: $7 per person.
Denver Hunger Meal:
The Hunger Meal is modeled after Oxfam’s “Family Dinner,” in which attendees receive different meals based on the proportion of people in the world who live in either wealth or extreme poverty. DenUM uses this model to illustrate poverty, hunger, and homelessness in Denver, dividing attendees into upper class, middle class, low-income and homeless groups. Each attendee receives a different meal, based on the table assignment or profile given to them at the door. One group receives a luxurious three-course dinner while others receive little. Cost: $60: does not include the cost of food. (Off-site only.)
Elementary School:
We offer a one-hour curriculum for elementary school aged youth that includes stories about kids who experience homelessness, art activities that focus on food and hunger, and interactive games that discuss poverty and privilege. Cost: $5 per child.