Urban Dreams

Honoring Community with an MLK Day of Service

The parking lot was nearly full when I arrived at the Wellmark Urban Dreams Community Center in Des Moines yesterday morning. The temperature may have reached 8 degrees by then, and as I got out of my pickup, pulled my hood up over my head, and scuttled to the door, I thought that if the people volunteering on this cold day were here, it meant that they believed both in Urban Dreams and in the message of hope and service inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

I was there because a couple of weeks ago I received an email invitation from Urban Dreams asking me if I wanted to participate in a day of service on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

I filled out the form and wrote that I was ready to work, could bring cleaning supplies (which I forgot), and that I was hoping I could get an interview with Executive Director Izaah Knox about what Urban Dreams did for the community. Izaah is also State Senator for District 17

Kali Douglass, community marketing manager, replied by thanking me for volunteering and that the interview would be welcome.

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I already had an idea of the great work Urban Dreams is doing, as I had recently received an email summarizing what had been accomplished during 2024. Here is one graphic that presents some impressive statistics:

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When I walked in the door I stood in line and waited for my name to be entered into a database of volunteers. I told the young woman registering us that I was there to work, but that I also hoped for an interview with Izaah. She introduced me to Kali Douglass who had corresponded with me earlier, and she introduced me to Izaah. I could tell he was busy, so I joined others who were cleaning everything in sight and moving stuff from a big storage room so it could be repurposed.

I’m an anthropologist and enjoy working with and getting to know people before I do interviews. Also, in working side by side with people as volunteers we learn that we share the same values, become friends if we are lucky, and most importantly, can build community together. So I joined in and met some kind and interesting people. Here are some photos:

Kali told me that 70-80 volunteers had signed up, mostly from churches, schools, and other community members. There were also volunteers from Broadlawns Hospital and Corteva Agriscience.

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Zachary Bonser moved to Iowa from Atlanta, Georgia about six months ago. He works at Corteva Agriscience in Des Moines in Communications.

Zach, why are you here today?

Just volunteering with some friends. We have a cohort of young people at Corteva and we thought that we should come and do something today to help out.

And what does today mean for you?

It means a lot. My parents are an interracial couple, so without Martin Luther King, I don't think I'd be here right now.

Anything else you'd like to add that I didn't think to ask?

Go serve in the community if you have the chance and the time. Looks like they could use more help here, so I think we'll definitely be back too…

Zach and I chatted for another minute or so, and while I was explaining what I was doing and why, I told him that I’m an anthropologist.

“Oh, you have to meet Daniel,” he said while gesturing for me to follow him.

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Daniel Woods is from Louisville, Kentucky, and moved to Des Moines about eight months ago to work for Corteva.

Daniel, why are you here today?

So, I'm here today because in the spirit of Martin Luther King, with his dream of love thy neighbor as thyself, as a Christian Pastor, he calls all of us to be Christ-like, and in that memory, we really have to help, because in pure religion that's helping the widows and the orphans and we look at an establishment like Urban Dreams—a place that helps the community that it’s grounded in, what can be more Christ-like than helping the ones that are around you because we have to spread the love.

Sometimes the only Jesus you see is you and me.

Zach was right. I did need to meet Daniel. I could have talked with him all day. He’s a Renaissance man, a philosopher, a historian, and more. I don’t have space to share all that we talked about, but here is a recording of some of his thoughts about culture, the natural world, and how it all relates to MLK.

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I saw Izaah stop working for a moment, and asked him if it was a good time to do an interview. It was.

Izaah, what’s happening at Urban Dreams today?

Today is our annual Martin Luther King Day of Service. This is the seventh or eighth year that we've done it. We have community members come in and help us help others by getting Urban Dreams set up for success throughout the year.

And tell us about who you serve.

We have about 25,000 visits a year just to this location, and then outside of Urban Dreams, we have about another 25,000 people that we serve on an annual basis. So, the food pantry is a big hit for most people, and about 80% of people that come here for any kind of service, once they find out we have a food pantry, they leave with food, or people come just for the food pantry and then end up using our other services. Like our substance outpatient, substance abuse treatment, and mental health. So the mental health needs and then other things, community events, we do about 80 community events a year. Both in Urban Dreams in our new facility or outside in the community.

I presume the funding comes from grants and donations.

All of the above. We have some services that we get reimbursed for, and obviously, we write a lot of grants, and then a lot of donations. Yeah. A third, a third, a third.

What does Martin Luther King Day mean to you?

It’s a day of service to give back and a means for us to help, for Urban Dreams to help others in a meaningful way.

And what are you thinking when you see all of these, I presume a lot of new people here today to help.

It really feels great. That people are so willing to come out to help us help others and give back to the community. And listen, this is just a day of service, one day of the year, but we do so many events people can come out for all of our events. Follow us on social media at Urban Dreams, Iowa, Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat…So we have tons of volunteers that come out and do all those things, like our daughter dance, in February, that we have that's free for the community. We have a book signing this coming up from the Honorable Helen Miller who was a state rep for a long time. She's doing her book launch here. We just had Moms Demand Action do their annual meeting here on Sunday. We have tons and tons and tons of opportunities for people to come out. And not just on Martin Luther King Day…

Why should people volunteer or donate and be a part of Urban Dreams?

Because of the staggering numbers of people in need that we help every day. We are celebrating our 40th year this year. So we've been around for a long time doing this work for people in the community; we're a trusted source and take good financial responsibility with people's money, and also a trusted source of providing good quality service for people in the community.

There's a joy to this kind of service and that's the kind of place that Urban Dreams has been—a beacon of hope and light in the community for so long. You come here and there’s joy, and listen—the reason why we bought this big 12,000 square foot facility to serve our community, and renovated it and did such a great job, and we have beautiful murals that are working on inside and multiple rooms is because the community really deserves something nice as well. So it makes people feel good when they're coming to get services here. They shouldn't just have to go to somewhere, that's just, you know, not up to par, not like a suburban type thing, right? We need this stuff here. That's why we have a golf simulator in the back because the kids use it and it's for kids to use because they don't have access to it out in our community, as much as they do out in the suburbs. We have an esports lab that rivals anyone in the country because kids want to do that stuff in our community too. They just don't have as much access as kids out in the suburbs or other places. So we provide those things to reduce the barriers for kids to be involved and engaged in anything they want to do. We make it happen.

And we can’t do it without donors and volunteers and staff and people who care about our mission and care about our community. That's what makes it work.

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