Some 60 community leaders are scheduled to spend this morning in a program that simulates what it’s like to live in poverty in Rhode Island.

Social Venture Partners Rhode Island, part of a growing network of people who invest their time, money and business skills in building stronger nonprofit organizations, will take part in the program at 8 a.m. at Exchange City at the Johnson & Wales University Harborside Campus, in Providence.

They will take part in four 15-minute sessions designed to represent one week in which they must provide for their families and maintain their homes. After the sessions, the participants will discuss solutions.

Some 12 percent of the people in Rhode Island live in households with incomes below the federal poverty level of $17,170 for a family of three.

Meanwhile, the costs for food, housing, child care, health care and energy are soaring.

Jennifer Marrapese, executive director of Social Venture Partners Rhode Island, said her group hopes that with greater awareness of the impacts of poverty, more can be done to address the problem.