How Virtual COPE Is Evolving to Meet Community Needs

At Think Tank, Inc., we’ve long believed that real understanding is the foundation of meaningful change. For over a decade, our Cost of Poverty Experience (COPE) has helped thousands of individuals see poverty through a new lens—one shaped by empathy, relationship, and lived experience. When the world shifted in 2020, so did we. Out of necessity and vision, Virtual COPE was born.

Now, Virtual COPE is evolving again—this time to offer a deeper level of relevance and connection through customization.

What Is Virtual COPE?

For those unfamiliar, Virtual COPE is a 90-minute online training designed to immerse participants in the day-to-day challenges faced by individuals and families living in poverty. Guided by live facilitators, participants join teams, assume the roles of family members, and navigate simulated weeks filled with difficult choices around housing, employment, childcare, and healthcare.

The experience is powerful—and not just because of the simulation. Each session includes space for guided reflection and dialogue, helping participants unpack what they’ve learned and how it applies to their work and community.

Virtual COPE is fully virtual, scalable (up to 120 participants per session), and built for engagement—making it a widely accessible tool for teams across sectors.

Why Customization Matters

While the core experience of VCOPE is impactful on its own, we recognize that poverty isn’t one-size-fits-all. The realities of a rural Appalachian family look different from those of a single mother navigating an urban housing crisis. A veteran returning to civilian life faces different systems than a high school student trying to support their siblings.

That’s why we’ve launched new customization options for Virtual COPE—designed to make the experience more contextual, resonant, and responsive to the people and places it serves.

Whether you're a nonprofit working with refugee families, a hospital seeking to understand the barriers your patients face, or a business trying to foster greater empathy within your leadership team, Virtual COPE can now meet you where you are.

What Customization Looks Like

We currently offer two tiers of customization:

Retooled Existing Profiles

With this option, we adapt our existing family stories to emphasize the realities your team or community is focused on—whether that's housing instability, working-class challenges, caregiving burdens, or any number of lived experiences.

Fully Custom Experiences

For those seeking a truly tailored experience, we offer full-scale customization. This includes interviewing community members, developing original profiles, scripting new stories, producing video segments, and even creating unique avatars that reflect the people you serve.

Both options maintain the core elements of VCOPE while enhancing its relevance—because the closer we get to real life, the more powerful the impact becomes.

Bringing It All Back to Mission

At Think Tank, we believe training should never be detached from the people it's meant to serve. Customizing VCOPE allows us to partner more intentionally with organizations who want to take a deeper dive into understanding poverty—not in theory, but in practice.

This work is about more than awareness. It’s about shifting culture, challenging assumptions, and starting conversations that lead to real change.

We’re excited to see how organizations across sectors—healthcare, education, philanthropy, business, government—are already using custom VCOPE experiences to build empathy, spark innovation, and inform decision-making.

Looking Ahead

If you’re curious about how a customized VCOPE could support your mission, we’d love to talk.

After all, understanding is the first step toward action—and every story we tell brings us one step closer to a more equitable world