About Us

Our ProtoDesigners – Liz, Lynn, Tom

 In fall 2010 a group of residents of Goodwill Inn accepted the challenge of designing a “homelessness simulator” board game that would help players with homes feel how they feel without homes.  The hope was that people with homes who played the games would, by experiencing some of the feelings of homelessness, become more concerned about and compassionate toward those without homes, more inclined toward involvement.

After a few months of preliminary work, the “homeless*” designers of the” Home Sweet Homelessness” game hosted “non-homeless*” testers in hour-long sessions followed by discussion and evaluation.  When homeless and non-homeless people played the games together, the “simulation” worked; the non-homeless people felt some of the feelings that the homeless designers feel.  Most said that they felt changed by playing the game, that they gained new insights even though they had worked with homeless people for some time.  All said that the game was a powerful tool, and should be produced and put into use.

Thanks to Tom Ockert, who was a designer of the first prototype.  He’s in the photo at the end of the table with his head down.  Jim and Peter are across the table from Lynn Cipka and Liz Coon, who picked up where Tom left off and moved the game toward eventual production.  Lynn, Liz, and Tom continue to provide guidance in the play of the game.

*About our language:  we have discovered a very humanizing guideline for language, called “people first”.  We no longer refer to “homeless people” or “the homeless”. We refer rather to “people experiencing homelessness”or “people without homes”.