When Wayne Ford was in the eighth grade, his teacher asked him to write his own obituary. This assignment forced him to think about the legacy he wanted to leave behind. "I saw myself in the Midwest," Ford says, "in politics, in charge of a community center. Upon my death, they would name something after me." Ford nevertheless was a class clown throughout his Washington, DC, school career, involved in juvenile crime, and named "most likely not to succeed" among his high-school classmates.
Twenty-one years after his eighth grade vision, in 1985, Ford founded Urban Dreams, a Des Moines, Iowa, human service organization for which he serves as Executive Director. Urban Dreams provides information and referral services for families and productive programs for kids whose after-school hours might otherwise be spent getting into trouble. Urban Dreams also helps urban areas bridge the gap between different races and ethnic groups.
Ford further fulfilled his premonition in 1996, when he was elected to the Iowa legislature. Now, at a time when politicians are in low repute for being out-of-touch with real people's concerns, Ford is a statesman who never forgot where he came from, who he is, and how he can help others achieve. His climb to the top of Iowa's public service ladder offers lessons about effecting change in one's own backyard and going where the most change can be made.
An Opportunity for Success
According to Ford, he achieved his goals because he had the opportunity to leave the inner city as a teen. A football scholarship from Rochester Junior College took Ford from racially mixed Washington, DC, and transplanted him into an all white community in 1969. It was a bittersweet move: "I was going to Minnesota, and my friends were going to prison," he says.
For Ford, junior college was a transition period. As one of few minorities, he felt isolated and alienated. He continued his streak of petty crime and his roommate killed a man, but a run-in with officials scared him into changing his ways. Ford says, "It was time I recognized my place was to give and not to take."
Another football scholarship led Ford to Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1972. After graduating with a bachelor's degree in education two years later, Ford began working on government contracts and proposals in the youth service field. Even then, he liked to be in charge. "If I didn't want to be fired from all the jobs I would ever get," Ford says, "I knew I would have to create my own entity."
In 1976, he founded and organized the Brown and Black Coalition Presidential Forum which has been covered by C-SPAN internationally since the early 1980's. This event allows minority leaders from Iowa to question the candidates running for President of the United States.
Urban Dreams
In 1983, two young African American men kidnapped a Catholic Bishop in the Des Moines neighborhood that would become the home of Urban Dreams. According to Ford, the incident incited public hysteria: the city was rife with crime and violence, and its young black men were out of control.
Ford recalled a community center back near Parkland Apartments in southeast Washington, DC, where he lived as a boy. Des Moines needed more organizations that gave kids a safe place to go and things to do after school. Moreover, it needed an environment in which young people could evolve and self-actualize. As an African American man and a Drake graduate, Ford believed he could appeal to the community for the means and support to transform it.
In 1984, Ford went to the city council and told them they needed somebody like him C- somebody willing to risk his life to help give kids a way out. With $10,000 from the council and additional support from the United Way, he founded Urban Dreams in 1995. Just to let people know that he meant business, Ford chose as the site a building on Sixth Avenue, a dangerous part of the city where the bishop had been kidnapped the previous year. "The things people run away from," Ford says, "I run toward."
Today, Urban Dreams offers a variety of services for Des Moines children and families, including family preservation, after-school programs, self-sufficiency training for welfare mothers, family counseling, and support groups for ex-offenders. Through information and referral, the organization helps to provide food, clothing, shelter, job opportunities, and a place to shower, rest, and get off the streets. Ford leads collaborative efforts with other local institutions, including the YMCA, Drake University, and Iowa State University to develop programs that benefit Des Moines residents.
Gang Prevention
Through Urban Dreams, Ford also responded to a burgeoning gang problem in Des Moines. Having grown up in an urban environment, he immediately recognized signs of gang activity, as well as the issues that drew young inner-city men towards crime and violence. Ford began traveling from school to school and from corner to corner, speaking to kids about how he narrowly escaped a life of crime. He told them, "If you want to die pretty fast, keep going at this rate."
Ford went to the media and to local police to create public awareness about the problem. He further brought attention to the issue on a radio program that he hosted from 1990 to 1996 on WHO Radio. He featured, among others, gang members who talked about life on the streets. "We gave Iowa a taste of something it never had before," Ford says.
Ford became recognized as an anti-gang expert across the state, serving on the Iowa Juvenile Justice Advisory Council. In 1994, he was asked to participate in a national workshop on urban gangs sponsored by the Washington, DC, based Milton S. Eisenhower Foundation. In 1995, ABC's Good Morning America profiled Urban Dreams on its effective work against youth violence in conjunction with its coverage of the National Violence Prevention Conference sponsored by the U.S. Center for Disease Control and held in Des Moines, at which Ford and a group of area youth participated in a panel on Youth Perspectives on Violence which was the most heavily attended workshop session at the conference.
A Renaissance in Des Moines
Ford credits Urban Dreams for helping to create a renaissance in Des Moines' inner city, as other service providers have moved into the areas in need of revitalization. A number of youth-oriented and general service organizations, including the Bethel Mission, Children and Families of Iowa, and the United Way of Central Iowa, now live in the area where Ford founded Urban Dreams in 1985.
In 1996, this area of Des Moines was designated a Federal Enterprise Community; and it was certified as a state Enterprise Zone by the Iowa state legislature in 1997 as a result of Rep. Ford's efforts. Enterprise Zones encourage growth in cities meeting the definition of economic distress: high rates of family poverty, a high percentage of housing vacancy, low per capita income, and proportionally low property values. The designation of Enterprise Zones helps to revitalize and bring economic self-sufficiency to Iowa cities. Eligible businesses receive property tax exemptions and tax credits for locating or expanding in an Enterprise Zone. A large insurance company has established a satellite office a few blocks north of Urban Dreams; and other companies are interested following suit because of the designation and Ford's efforts, through his consulting firm, Wayne Ford & Associates, to develop employment opportunities for inner city residents.
"If you come from the inner city," Ford says, "you recognize how lucky you are, and you want to give back and help." Building the community will give kids better opportunities—as long as they recognize their responsibilities to themselves. "I tell them, don't you ever tell me you can't find the higher ground." Says Ford, "Don't you ever tell me about what you can't do."
Accolades
Four years after it opened its doors, Urban Dreams became a United Way agency, receiving grants in two categories: youth programs and information and referral services. The program has been documented on Black Entertainment Television (BET) and in the Des Moines Register. Ford has received a myriad of honors for community service from organizations including the NAACP and Drake University. In April 1999, Ford will assume a seat on the Board of Trustees for the Milton S. Eisenhower Foundation.
In 1994, Ford was the first African American ever inducted into the Rochester Junior College Alumni Hall of Fame as a result of his history of community service; and he received Drake University's presitigous Double-D award, given to former Drake athletes who have excelled as alumni in their professional accomplishments or service to their communities, a year later.
Ford believes that it is important for children of color to see more minorities in positions of power today. His race brought out one of the highest minority voter turn-out in decades. Why did inner-city residents fail to engage civically? According to Ford, the lack of participation stems from poor living conditions, including domestic abuse and crime.
"People no longer have the fabric of their families down the block," Ford says. Children grow up learning to distrust others, particularly those of different races and ethnicities. And Ford understands what it's like to be an outsider, not wanting to assimilate.
"Every day I see a bunch of young Wayne Fords," he says, "and I know I was only a gun shot or a needle away from being the same as the people I impact today." He credits God and his faith, his commitment to the community, his professionalism, his "realness," and his determination to take no prisoners with his success in building a better Des Moines for kids. "It's your dream," Ford says, "and you don't take no for an answer."
Urban Dreams
Contact: Wayne Ford
1400 Sixth Avenue
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Twenty-one years after his eighth grade vision, in 1985, Ford founded Urban Dreams, a Des Moines, Iowa, human service organization for which he serves as Executive Director. Urban Dreams provides information and referral services for families and productive programs for kids whose after-school hours might otherwise be spent getting into trouble. Urban Dreams also helps urban areas bridge the gap between different races and ethnic groups.