Amber Lynch, who helped create Invest DSM with a vision to build healthy neighborhoods by keeping people in their homes, will step down as the organization’s executive director on Thursday.

Lynch, 43, has led Invest DSM since it was founded in July 2019. While she didn’t say what her next professional role will be, she said it will be in urban and community development in the Des Moines area.

Lynch came to Invest DSM after spending 10 years as a planner with the city of Des Moines.

She said the time is right for a change.

Lynch said she’s been doing neighborhood work in Des Moines for a long time and is looking for a new challenge.

“I feel like Invest DSM is in a really good place and kind of at a transition point,” she said. “It’s not a startup organization anymore. It’s stable. It’s growing. And I was thinking about the balance I want to have in my life. I was ready to move toward something else and let somebody else take the reins.”

Lynch said she plans to take some time off in May and early June before beginning her new role.

“I’ll still be in Des Moines, and I’m staying in the urban planning, community development world, just coming at it from a little different angle,” she said.

The beginning
Lynch reflected on the start of Invest DSM, saying “it was just an idea coming out of a long history of neighborhood revitalization work the city had been doing.”

It took about two years, from 2017 to 2019, to look at how the program would work and effectively meet the needs of the neighborhoods it would serve, she said.

“We were testing this new idea because the city had limited resources to put toward this, and if we could focus those resources in more middle-market neighborhoods we could get this huge impact in a pretty short amount of time,” she said.

Afterall, people who live in middle-market neighborhoods have some capacity to invest alongside public funds, helping to better leverage those public dollars to invest in those neighborhoods, Lynch said.

That, she said, can “build confidence and get people investing in these old homes we have all across the city, and really ramp up the desirability of the neighborhoods that exist but need to maybe be enhanced or accelerated.”

“So we kind of started with this hypothesis that by concentrating limited resources in these places that were kind of on the edge would pay a lot of dividends for the community,” Lynch said.

There weren’t many examples of similar work being done elsewhere in the country, so Des Moines was on the leading edge with its concept for Invest DSM, she said.

Invest DSM has grown since its inception and has added staff — now with eight employees including the executive director — to handle the increased demand.

Earlier this year, Invest DSM announced it would expand its reach into three additional Des Moines neighborhoods: Union Park, North of Grand and Woodland Heights.

Those districts are joining Invest DSM’s current neighborhoods as Special Investment Districts. Current areas eligible for Invest DSM grants are Columbus Park, Drake, Franklin and the Oak Park/Highland Park neighborhoods.

“It’s been exciting to see that this idea we had, that we saw a lot of potential in is really coming to fruition,” Lynch said.

Lynch acknowledged that while she’s ready for a change, it will be difficult to let go of something she was so closely involved in from its start.

“It can be hard, especially something that you’ve been such an integral part of for a while,” she said. “But I have a lot of confidence in our staff, in their passion for the job, in their commitment to the mission of the organization and in their ability to carry things forward. It will be hard in some ways to not have control over what happens next, but at the same time, I have a lot of reasons to feel optimistic about it, so I’m excited to see where somebody else takes this.”

The Invest DSM board is working with a recruiter to conduct a search for a new executive director with hopes of having a new executive director in place by the end of the summer, Lynch said.

Turning points
Lynch said there have been a number of landmark moments as she watched Invest DSM evolve.

While a lot of attention is paid to community focused projects, like lighting projects in the Dogtown Business District in the Drake neighborhood, the redevelopment of a vacant building in Highland Park or an old home that has been completely renovated, Lynch said some of her biggest rewards have been working with homeowners in the neighborhoods served by Invest DSM.

“It’s been really gratifying to know that our homeowner renovation program has helped so many people turn their house into something that either they don’t have to stress about anymore or a home that they want to stay in as opposed to looking for something else outside of Des Moines,” Lynch said.

There were also those moments when all the organization’s grant programs were put in place, a process that took a couple of years, she said.

“Sometimes you don’t know what walls you’re going to hit until they are right in front of you when you’re building something new,” Lynch said. “So getting those into a place where they’re running smoothly, that was a really good moment.”

She said that too often there’s a misperception that Invest DSM is trying to drive people out of neighborhoods and replace them with someone with a higher income.

“Actually, what we’re doing is trying to retain residents and help them keep their home and their block and their neighborhood healthy,” Lynch said.

Maybe the best feeling is seeing the fruits of Invest DSM’s mission being realized, she said.

“I think the most exciting change that I’m seeing is when I’m driving down a street that is completely residential and I can see in the visible investment that we have touched 60% of the homes on that block,” Lynch said. “And that, for the long-term sustainability and health of Des Moines, that’s what’s going to pay dividends for the community for years and years. I think sometimes that gets lost.”