Anyone wondering what it’s like to be poor in high-priced Silicon Valley can find out when Sunnyvale Community Services holds its fifth annual poverty simulation event.

This year’s poverty simulation will take place on Friday, Jan. 19, from 8:30 a.m. to noon at the Sunnyvale Presbyterian Church, 728 W. Fremont Ave.

“That poverty is a growing problem in Silicon Valley and across the country is not a surprise to anyone,” said Marie Bernard, Sunnyvale Community Services’ executive director. “Though the community demographics have changed during this decade, our holiday program has served record numbers of people year after year.”

The simulation is being conducted in partnership with the Downtown Streets Team, which employs homeless and low-income residents. Downtown Streets Team members will take on the roles of social workers, police officers, shop owners and employees of other institutions that participants will depend on to survive.

Each participant will spend the morning as a member of an impoverished family struggling to get kids to school or work, pay the rent and cover surprise expenses such as funeral costs or medical bills.

In the five years that Sunnyvale Community Services has been running the poverty simulation, participants have included employees of local government, schools and businesses.

“Having ‘lived’ the Poverty Simulation the past four years, I have gained new insights each time I’ve opened myself to the experience,” Shane Jacksteit, a financial adviser with Edward Jones, said in a press release. “Most of us take so many small conveniences for granted that it’s difficult for us to really get what living in poverty is like.”

To register as part of the poverty simulation, visit svcommunityservices.org. For questions, email Tory Bers at tbers@svcommunityservices.org.