Partnership delegates in nation’s capital swell ranks of city’s cheerleaders

WASHINGTON, D.C. – A rousing, hand-clapping celebration of neighborhood-based services, charitable contributions, cultural improvements and ethnic diversity that led to Des Moines’ selection as an All-America City put an exclamation point on the end of the Greater Des Moines Partnership’s June 11-13 lobbying trip.

Twenty-five of the 140 business leaders and public officials who made the trip to Washington, D.C., to snare federal appropriations for Central Iowa projects took the civic boosterism that normally occurs on such trips to a higher level, chanting “Let’s go Des Moines! Let’s go Des Moines!” and swelling the ranks of Des Moines’ All-America City presentation team on stage at the Hilton Washington.

Des Moines Mayor Preston Daniels said their presence didn’t go unnoticed by a jury from the National Civic League, the 108-year-old, Denver Colo.-based non-profit government improvement group that on June 14 gave Des Moines and nine other U.S. cities All-America City awards. Des Moines had been named an All-America City three times before, in 1949, 1976 and 1981.

“If you could bottle the enthusiasm and positive atmosphere that surrounds the All-America City event and instill and inject it in all people in a community, there’s nothing that community couldn’t accomplish,” Daniels said.

The designation will be used by Des Moines officials to attract out-of-town visitors and events. “It says that we have succeeded in the eyes of the people who judge nationally what makes a good or great community,” Daniels said. “Those who have the skills have said Des Moines is a great community and proactive in doing the things that make a difference.”

During the June 13 presentation, speakers included Daniels; City Manager Eric Anderson; City Council members Chris Coleman, Frank Cownie and Christine Hensley; Roger Thompson, a 20-year resident of the River Bend neighborhood; B.J. Do, chairman of the Iowa Asian Alliance; Steven Johnson, executive director of Partners in Economic Progress; Aaron Smith, a mentor and case manager for Moulton Elementary School; and Yvette Sutton, an investment banker at Wells Fargo Bank Iowa, and her son, Kendall, who along with his six siblings has attended the Evelyn K. Davis Early Learning Academy, which serves students of color and inner-city children in the Des Moines area.

Judges were especially impressed by the Neighborhood Based Service Delivery program and the Evelyn Davis Academy. One of the judges, William Hansell, said the two programs are “almost models in best practices and would be wonderful to replicate.”

Johnson, who himself attended the academy – then called Tiny Tots Childcare – told judges it was on the brink of closing two years ago before a collaboration between United Way of Central Iowa, the Des Moines public school system and the city of Des Moines was formed. “Thanks to this collaboration, it is now a springboard for academic achievement in the inner city,” he said.

In her presentation, Sutton said the affordable day care provided in the loving atmosphere of the Evelyn Davis Academy allowed her to return to school to get her degree. She’s been an investment banker for 13 years. Her son Kendall said the academy “wasn’t just a day care, it was a home.”

“It taught me to read, write and self-respect,” he said.

More than that, Smith said, Kendall, and hundreds of others who have attended the academy have learned skills that have allowed them to step into leadership roles. Kendall is a quarterback on Smith’s football team, a point guard on its basketball team and a captain on both; an active member of the drama club; an honor roll student; a safety patrol guard; and a conflict manager.

“These are all leadership roles for him at a very young age, and they can all be attributed to his strong, actively involved mother, as well as having gotten an early start in his development in socialization and learning at the Evelyn Davis Academy,” Smith said. “As you can see, he’s a great little dude.”

Anderson explained the Neighborhood Based Service Delivery program as a partnership between neighborhood residents and city employees to find solutions to problems ranging from illegal dumping and abandoned properties to prostitution and drugs. “Bad landlords and tenants and owners who neglect their property and people with bad behavior can send a community into a downward spiral that impacts the health and well-being of all the other residents and lowers property values,” he said.

The program, he said, “combines the energies and commitments of the neighbors with the skills and resources of city employees to address bad behaviors and build stronger neighborhood communities.”

Thompson said the River Bend neighborhood, where he’s lived for 20 years, was once a place where drug dealers positioned themselves on street corners, parents were afraid to let their children go outside alone, and residents frequently reported being assaulted and robbed. Within a year and a half of implementation, the River Bend neighborhood went from having the highest crime rate in the city to the lowest.

“Our neighborhood is cleaner and safer, and more people are attending the neighborhood meetings,” Thompson said. “There is a sense of pride that was never there before. Instead of abandoned storefronts, we have new businesses and homes.

“I’ve heard of police working with neighborhoods, but never to the level that they are working with us as part of our [Neighborhood Based Service Delivery] team,” he said.