Springfield Dream Center

Clint Girlie speaks with Jody Dow, Ashley Baker, Evie Tackett-Turner & Kristen White from The Dream Center about their facility and services in Zone 1, Springfield. They discuss the outreach projects they facilitate as well as upcoming community and fundraising events.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Wello, and welcome to a showthat we call iHeart the Ozarks. This
is a half hour long show.There's across all five of our iHeart Radio
stations here in Springfield every Sunday,and we get an opportunity each and every
week to sit down with a group, organization, or just maybe some individuals
that are doing a ton of goodfor our community. What's exciting about today's

(00:21):
show for myself, Clint Girley,and the rest of our staff is I
have zero knowledge about what the DreamCenter does other than it sounds magic number
one. And also I've heard itsaid one hundred thousand times. It's very
clear you have a presence in purposewithin this community. However, I don't

(00:42):
know a ton about it. Thatis not abnormal. I don't want you
to think I've been excluding you.I just don't. And I am the
older I've gotten more and more okaywith admitting where my ignorance line is drawn,
it's very close to my person.So I'm excited to welcome in.
I got a whole bunch of peopletoday. So we've got Jody now,
who is the executive director. Hello, Jody, Hey. We have Ashley

(01:07):
Baker, who is the help programdirector. Hello Ashley, Hi, all
right, we've got Evie Tackett Turner, who is the communications director. Is
that you Evie? And the glassesthere, that's me. I'm the one
in the glasses. Hello. Seesee. I wish everyone would have something
noticeable amount their face that helps meto remember it with glasses and not a
bright purple hair. I like that. Do you have bright purple hair?

(01:30):
Oh? Can you see it inthe light? That's very true. You
are backlit, so you more looklike an angel than a purple haired girl
at this point. And then finallychrist And White, who's the development director.
Hello, Kristen, Hello somebody,and again, because we have so
many people this is, don't feelthe need to wait in line, although

(01:52):
your executive director is here, solike, maybe don't take it too far,
but you know, whoever has ananswer or whoever wants contribute to this
conversation, please feel free to doso throughout the entire thing here. This
is going to be learning a lotabout what the Dream Center is and then
how we as a community can getinvolved with what you do. What you
need from us to make sure thatyour mission is that much easier to accomplish

(02:16):
and how we can continue to helpgrow what you all do. So first
question is just a big beach ballcoming at you. What is the Dream
Center? Well, first of all, not a big deal that you haven't
heard about us. We're only sixyears old. So while we would love
for everybody in town to know theDream Center, we know that's not possible

(02:37):
yet and we love getting the opportunityto share, so thank you for having
us. We are located Zone oneof Springfield, some Northwest quadrant, and
what we describe ourselves as is reallyhelping families regain stability. So we call
it help for today, Hope fortomorrow. So we want to interrupt some

(02:58):
crisis thinking with the help portion ofour programming, everything from partnerships with diapers
and senior boxes to a Wednesday nightcommunity meal that's free for anyone. We
don't require any type of stipulations tocome eat dinner. We want to be
able to meet people where they areat. We have some emergency hygiene supplies

(03:21):
and cleaning supplies, and really thehelp programs are designed again as at interruption
and a basis of creating relationship.So when we approach change for people or
increasing stability, we think it happensby knowing them and not assuming that we
can choose best for them. Sothose help programs are all there to really

(03:46):
get to know the families that areusing our services, and then we can
ask the big questions. We canget to know them over time and start
moving them towards the hope for tomorrow, which are ongoing education. Maybe it's
a budgeting class, a parenting class, way of helping you increase some of
those stability markers and self sufficiency scores. And then we have an after school

(04:10):
program that's free for kids in ourneighborhood that's teaching social and emotional skills so
that they're already even as kids,increasing their own stability and then ability to
have the tools needed to go forwardin life. And all of our kids
in our program are free and reducedto lunch, so they're living at or
below poverty level. A lot oftimes we're seeing it as generational where they're

(04:34):
growing up in a very close radiusto what their parents have grown up in.
And that's a lot of times ourfamilies that we're working with have just
felt stuck where they're like, wekeep trying to make a difference or trying
to move ahead and life keeps happening, keep getting caught by a bad decision

(04:54):
I made a decade ago is holdingme back. So we really get to
interrupt some of that thinking, helpthem see what's possible, and then set
them up on a track that's goingto get them there. So my wife,
who's an MSW for a very longtime, was a short term crisis
intervention social worker. And from yourdescription, it sounds a lot like you've

(05:16):
taken that job and just made mywife into a building, like a physical
building, where you're just like,come love it here, come to us
with your problems, and we willtry to solve them. That sounds a
lot like what it is though.Right, You guys are basically social working
a quadrant of the city basically,and our social worker is gone today on
vacation. But she just celebrated ayear. So for the first five years

(05:39):
of work, we didn't have asocial worker here. We just kind of
fumbled through it with our families.And one of the things I love is
we don't tell anyone we can solvetheir problems, because I can't. You
come to me with generations of ideologyabout what is possible for yourself if you

(06:00):
have always been told you won't accomplishanything. I can't fix that for you,
and neither can anyone on our teamor any program we have. But
what we want to do is empowerthe person who's ready, and so we
won't ever make you do it alone. You'll find a community that's going to
surround you, staff and volunteers whoare going to cheer you on. And
so we help families be their ownsolution, but we ride in the passenger

(06:25):
seat with them, so they've gotto be the driver of their life.
But like, no road trip isfun when you're just by yourself, so
we'll go with you. How doesthis start? Like, I mean,
you say it's only six years old, So how does this become an idea
into an actual place and now aplace with tons of staff and doing the
job. Yeah, to be honestwith you, I was eleven and I

(06:47):
had a crazy idea that people wereworth something started. Hold on, it
started when you were eleven. Yeah, I was a weird kid, Clint.
I'm not normal. So parents shouldnot be listening to this and think,
man, my love, and you'reall this is just driving me crazy.
I promise you I drove my parentscrazy. But I had heard someone

(07:09):
talk about what it meant to carefor others, and it just seemed simple
to me, of why don't morepeople care and why are there so many
people that don't think that they're worthanything? Or you've messed up and so
now your dream's gone. It's like, no, you messed up, So
your dream the way to get theremay look different, but it's not gone.

(07:30):
You're not done. So I hadhad this idea since I was eleven
that I just wanted to be Iwanted to build a place that would encourage
other people. And you know,if you've ever waited on a dream in
your life, sometimes there's a twentyyear gap between having an idea and something
happening. And so I was workingfor a local church at the time who

(07:55):
was doing some great stuff outreach wise, but it was all big events or
all in a response to a largeneed. And what we really discovered is
those things are great, but whenwe get down to what does it really
look like to care for our neighborand care for our community, it cannot
just be a crisis response or bigevents. It has to be every day

(08:18):
because our neighbors are around every day, so is the Dream Center. Is
it a religious group? So we'reowned by a church technically. Um.
What I love is they don't puttheir name on the building. So we
do hold a church service every weekas one of our programs. But they
wanted us to be able to leadand serve our neighbors here in a way

(08:39):
that there was no way the lingocould keep someone from feeling like they could
come inside. What church are youallowed to say? Is it secret?
Oh? Totally. We joke allthe time. They always openly claim us,
and then we're like, uh yeah, north Point. So north Point

(09:00):
they launched us, they own us. They're a great support for us through
their finances and staffing and wonderful,wonderful partners And I think the best thing
they do partnership wise is they letit be about the city in the community
and not about them. Are youguys converting people? Is that the whole
mission here? No? I'm sureno, I mean really, I think

(09:22):
there's a lot of times, especiallyin an area like this, where folks
who are non believers or are stillattached but just barely because some stuff's gone
on. There's a lot of thataround. I'm sure you guys have heard
where they'll come into a place thinkingthey're there to help, but they're more
there to help the religious side andnot necessarily the person side. And so

(09:45):
I'm just yeah, curious about youguys. Yeah. No, I would
say that's part of the reason northPoint doesn't put their name on the building.
So they host a service here onthe weekend, and that is one
of the programs we offer, hasit own staff that run that. And
what north Point cares about through theDream Center is people finding the help that

(10:07):
they need and the hope that theyneed. And there's not this like the
big evangelical word is proselytizing. Soyou don't have to say a prayer before
you get a meal, you don'tneed to attend a service before you're given
a service. We want to meetyou where you're at. We want to
take care of you because for us, that's where the importance lies. Jody

(10:28):
down is the executive director of theDream Center. Ashley Baker, Are you
the program director of Help? Isthat an acronym for something or is it
just like we're just help, that'sour program. No, So it's just
kind of our catchphrase around here.Help for today, hope for tomorrow.
So when we say help programs,we're always looking through one of those two

(10:48):
lenses. How can we help people, how can we provide hope? So
our help programs are going to bethose things like how we partner with other
nonprofits. It's in the area,so we're going to do things like partner
with Diaper Bank to be a distributionsite for families who need diapers because it's
easier for them to get to ourlocation than it would be for them to

(11:11):
get to the diaper Bank on EastDivision because their transportation is limited. Or
we're a distribution site for Senior Boxes, which is a state run program,
and same thing. A lot oftimes it's just distribution sites are spread throughout
the city because transportation can be limited, and so it makes sense to spread

(11:31):
those distribution sites throughout the city andwe just get to be one of them.
So our help programs are just thatallowing us to meet people where they
are. Sometimes it's proximity based,like we want to come to them right.
Sometimes it's meeting them where they areas far as what's going on in
their life. We also do withthose community meals every Wednesday, and Jody

(11:54):
mentioned this earlier, but people don'thave to prove their need. They just
have to self identify and say,hey, this is helpful for whatever reason,
because they maybe they wouldn't have ameal if they didn't show up on
Wednesday. Or maybe it's they needa break in the middle of their week
so they don't have to cook andthey don't have to clean up after themselves

(12:15):
on one week night every single week. Or we have some friends who show
up because they know that when theywalk in there's going to be three or
four people that are just going tosay hi to them and say, hey,
you had a job interview last week, how did that go? And
it really is just a sense ofcommunity when they walk in on a Wednesday
night. So a variety of differentreasons why community dinner is a huge help,

(12:41):
But it also is gives people alittle dose of hope while they're here.
So those are a couple of differentopen question for everybody. Why is
having this in Zone one such animportant place? When we started, it
was right on the tails of theZone one blitz that happened about probably six

(13:01):
seven years ago, when Springfield asa whole identified Zone one of Springfield as
an under resourced area in town anddoing some improvements from all different angles,
so it seemed like a really naturalplace for us to land. Was within
that area that Springfield as a citywas really focusing at. Our building was

(13:22):
gifted to us. So it wasHamlin Baptist was moving to the north side
of town past the Fairgrounds on thirteenand they needed to gift their current space.
So they had sent out communication nationallyand locally to about fifteen different organizations
trying to find someone who would comein be able to do some community services

(13:45):
and a community hub. And soit was the timing of it was great.
We were looking one blitz was happeningand Hamlin had space in that geographical
area that they were looking to agift towards someone else. So Evie,
you're the communications director with your angelicbackground in your purple hair, and I

(14:09):
have a little bit of background incommunications. The population the Dream Center has
been plopped down in the middle ofin that side of town, and the
population itself is one of the moredifficult ones to communicate. Two, to
get word out about services you offeror you know, staff availability or whatever

(14:35):
is happening. Events you're throwing howdo you manage that? How do you
communicate to what's been now shown somany times statistically just a poverty stricken area.
Yeah, so it really starts withjust building relationship, and so it'll
often start with one of our events, like our block parties, which we

(14:58):
host quarterly. We actually have onecoming up here student. I think we're
going to talk about it in aminute, but it's just this really big,
one time event that puts us outinto the neighborhood. People say,
oh, what's going on here.That's just kind of our opportunity to introduce
ourselves and say, hey, here'swhat we're doing, here's what else we
can do. So it's just buildingthose relationships from somebody coming in frequently starting

(15:22):
in one of our help programs andthen saying oh, okay, this is
actually super helpful, and then comingback and coming back and coming back again,
and then a lot of the timesthey'll move on to our help programs
like our Rise classes that we doin conjunction with C. Drew Lewis Foundation
also here in town. So it'sjust constantly letting people know that we're there,

(15:43):
letting people know, you know,we're not going anywhere. You don't
have to do anything in order toget these services. We're just here for
you, Kristens. As a developmentdirector, I'd imagine that means you don't
get the allure of saying executive director. Right, You're not the cult leader,

(16:03):
You're the one who enforces the rules. Right. I do my best,
but mainly I'm just figuring out howwe can raise funds to keep this
place going. So that's my job. What how I mean? You sound
like you know the foundation you werebuilt on was part of a church,

(16:26):
north Point Church. But I wouldimagine that as your program grows, as
what you do in that community startsreaching further and further, that may require
more assistance. Am I wrong?Assuming that? No, not wrong at
all. North Point has been sucha great foundation for us and still continues

(16:47):
to be such a great financial partner. But like you're saying, as programs
grow, so then do other streamsof funding, and so that looks different
for us. Most of our fundingis from end of visual donors who started
as volunteers or just have bought intothe vision. We have some really committed
individuals that just believe in what we'redoing, and so they're incredibly generous to

(17:11):
support in that way. We alsohave lots of business sponsors in the community.
Springfield is really unique in that way. Businesses are excited and ready to
support what goes right back into thecommunity. So yeah, just kind of
finding different streams of funding. EVand I kind of tag team grants.
She does an incredible job technically writingour vision and so really just chasing down

(17:37):
any lead, but just getting toreally share the stories of what's happening.
And then people just buy into thatbecause they believe in it, so so
share the stories now and again.This can be for anybody. The way
in my ear receives what you're sayingis you guys run a very broad,
wide reaching program with connections to alot of specific programs that other people run,

(18:04):
which is awesome. That's how I'llgo back to my wife when my
wife was explaining to me what socialwork was, and not necessarily the person
who just takes kids out of people'shomes, but somebody who takes an individual
and connects them to people who specificallycan help with the need they're dealing with
at that moment. That it doessound a lot to me like that's what

(18:26):
you do. So what does thatlook like in real terms? I mean,
surely six years since found that you'vebeen founded. There have been successes
that you like to share. I'dlove to hear some of those. So
we like to describe it here.You know, when you think about education,
you start in preschool and then yougo to elementary school. And we

(18:48):
know that after elementary school you're goingto middle school and then you'll go to
high school and then you'll figure outwhat's next. But the Dream Center it's
not quite so linear. So wedescribe it like a play ground where we
are like that tuna game that ishappening on the blacktop, where anybody's welcome
and hey, just come play,come play tag with us. And then

(19:08):
eventually you get brave enough to getoff the fence and come play and you're
like, okay, I could goswing with that person. And all these
different playground equipments represent different programs forus, and there's no right or wrong
way to play on the playground.Just get involved, try it out,
and figure it out. But themonkey bars are kind of the pinnacle,

(19:30):
right, So once you can crossthose monkey bars, it's the hardest piece
of equipment out there. You fall, it's the scariest thing to get back
on. But there's again you cango over it one hand at a time.
You can climb across the top.There's not a right way to quote
unquote finish or what we call befully launched from the dream center. So

(19:52):
the first thing we do is weallow families to choose their own route,
because again I can't make the choicefor you, so you choose what program
is best fit for you. Butwhen we get them to fully launch,
to go over those monkey bars,the goal for us is then that they're
right back out on the blacktop orat a different piece of equipment, and

(20:15):
they are making the other people whoare on their journeys still feel comfortable.
So I think of Zach, whowas one of our first families that we
worked with. He came to ushigh and homeless, living in his van,
and he has, I mean,from the time you meet him,
this amazing personality and found out prettyquickly after coming here that his girlfriend was

(20:37):
pregnant. Realized I cannot become adad high and homeless. I gotta figure
some things out. So he chasedsobriety. And I say chased it because
if you've ever walked sobriety with someone, it's not a I have conquered this
and it no longer comes back likeyou chase it every day, you choose
it every day, you battle itevery day, and it is a conscious

(21:00):
effort to stay sober, and sohe is sober. We're now I think
he's going on year four of fulltime work here in town, an amazing
job where he's able to have benefits. He's now a single dad. The
little girl's mom is out of thepicture, and so he's raising her in

(21:22):
a phenomenal parent. So this issomebody who has utilized every program that is
open to him. So the onlything he hasn't utilized here is academy because
he is not in the two schoolsthat we serve, and his little girl's
just now going into kindergarten. Buthe's taken every class, every opportunity that
he has here. And to watchwho he is now is a huge encouragement

(21:48):
because this is someone who's confident,and he wasn't when we first met him.
He was charismatic, but he wasn'tconfident. And now he's the gentle
giant of a dad for his littlegirl who adores him so much. But
he didn't have parenting skills when hestarted. He's like, what the heck,

(22:10):
am I supposed to do with thisthing? And so he's learned this
over time, he's created community.He's been a huge encouragement to others who
are going through that, and he'sfully launched. So he's living two above
the poverty line, which means thatwhen life knocks him down he has a
flat tire, his kids sick andcan't go to daycare, and he's taking

(22:30):
off work. He's okay, he'snot going to fall back under that poverty
line. You know, you eventhink Springfield area this week experiencing storms and
people are out of electricity and you'rethrowing food away. And you only throw
food away right after you go groceryshopping, right, You never lose electricity

(22:52):
when the fridge is empty. It'salways when it's full. But Zach could
handle something like that happening, andhe financially, he is not going to
be derailed. And so he comesevery single Wednesday now and volunteers during dinner.
And his job is to greet peopleas they come in and he remembers
them by name and he encourages them. And Zach's one of those guys who

(23:14):
makes you want to be better.He makes you want to grow, and
so it's really really fun to watchhis success and it takes time. You
know, we just say that amovement, all movement counts, So even
if it feels like it's a stepbackwards, if you're still trying, you're
still making movement, it counts.And so we can celebrate his story now

(23:37):
and looking back at it, thefirst year and a half, it felt
dreadfully slow for him, but hedid it because he's stuck with it,
and so I'm really proud of Zach. I know every single one of these
people on this screen can share astory because we do this regularly and they
all just turned them in for theirmonth end reports. So I'm gonna let
one of you guys share one ofthe things that you have that you put

(24:00):
in your report this month. Yeah. So we have a student who he
has been in our Dream Center Academyas long as I've been around. So
he was one of the very firstkiddos that I got to meet, probably
four or five years ago. He'smiddle school now, which is crazy because

(24:23):
he was probably third or fourth gradewhen I first got to meet him,
and he was a tough kiddo,not the best home life. He is
so he's one of the most disciplinedpeople, and like, not the most
disciplined kids, one of the mostdisciplined people I know, because like he
wakes himself up every day for schooland he gets himself there, he brings

(24:48):
himself everywhere he goes, Like,I'm just so impressed by him all of
the time. So he on hedecided on Wednesday nights he was going to
come every week and get dinner forhim his family and bring it back home.
And he did that for months.He would show up, he would
get the dinner, he would takeit home, and then there was one
Wednesday where he just decided before heleft, He's like, hey, is

(25:11):
there, can I help with anythingbefore I go? And I was like,
uh sure, Like and just tobe clear, not something you'd hear
from this kid, Like this kidlined off, can I make your life
more difficult? And he was goodat it. Yeah, yeah. I
was like, uh sure, whydon't you help with basketball because the kids

(25:34):
are playing basketball today? He's likeokay, cool. So he did that
and then the next week he comesback and he's like, could I play
basketball again? And I was like, yeah, okay. So he played
basketball for a little bit, andthen he got his meals and took him
home. And so every week hewould come back and he would do the
same thing and they'd be like anythingelse before I go, and I'm like,

(25:55):
sure, like basketball, and andthen like every week he would just
ask for something else. And sohere recently, probably about a month ago,
we have this joke here at theDream Center because we love doing fun
things. Um, it's really becausewe don't like to choose what we're going
to wear every day. But everyWednesday we have this red T shirt that
we wear. We say on Wednesdayswe wear red. So all of like

(26:18):
our consistent volunteers who show up everyWednesday, they we all have the same
red T shirt. And it's itmakes us easily identifiable to new volunteers,
to new families. They know whoto come ask if they have questions.
It's also because then we don't haveto think about what we're gonna wear when
we get up on Wednesday. Supereasy. So this kiddo, he was
like, Hey, so you knowI've been I've been hanging out in the

(26:41):
kids area. I feel like I'vereally been doing a great job. I'm
wondering would it be okay if Ihave one of the Red Volunteer T shirts.
I said, absolutely, You've earnedthat Red Volunteer T shirt. He's
like, Okay, well I promise, like I'm going to come back every
single week because like I've got theRed T shirt, I've got to be
here. And he's been back everysingle week because like that responsibility was a

(27:03):
huge thing for him. Um.But like what really stuck out to me
is like he initiated all of thosethings on his own. He is so
responsible, he advocated for himself,like that was something he feel like he
earned, um, and like he'staking it seriously, like that's something that
he's he's just going for it.And it's been it's been years of seeing

(27:26):
that and all of that's progressed inthe last couple of months, but just
knowing him for for this long hasbeen thinking back then it's huge growth for
him. So it's so exciting.Yeah, two minutes left, you guys
mentioned something was coming up. I'llgive you a chance to talk about that

(27:47):
as well as any other way youthink the community can jump in and join
up with you. One of them, I'm going to let you talk about
block Party A B. But oneof the easiest ways for people to know
what's happening at dream Center, whetherit's they have a volunteer question, a
donor question, when they hear Kristentalk about business sponsorships, any of that
is our website, which is justSpringfield Dreamcenter dot com. We're also on

(28:11):
all the different socials with that samehandle, so Springfield Dream Center will lead
them to any of those questions thatthey have. But Ashley has a block
party coming up, and then Kristenis working on our largest fundraisers. So
really fast, you guys, givethe highs of what you've got. Oh
yeah, I'll be quick. Soblock party we throw these quarterly. This

(28:33):
one is going to be super fun. It's a back to school block party,
so families and from anywhere are welcometo come join us. It's going
to be a way to, youknow, just celebrate the end of summer
as we settle back into a rhythmof the back to school season. There's
going to be a bunch of differentpartners that are going to provide information about
different resources that they have available attheir organizations as well as what we vide

(29:00):
here. We'll have some tangible resourcesthat they can take home with them.
That day and we just hope tohave a lot of fun. So there's
several different volunteer opportunities that day ifpeople want to get involved that way.
D eight time Saturday, August nineteenth, from ten to one. Awesome and
Kristen, what's your big thing?Yes? Absolutely So the first Friday of

(29:23):
every November we hold our biggest fundraiserof the year. We call it annual
event. This year's theme is prettysimple, help and hope. We'll be
focusing on the and portion of that, just to share with existing and prospective
supporters and donors what's going on atthe Dream Center. It's hosted here at
the Dream Center on site. Wetransform the building into beautiful, elegant decorated

(29:47):
space to enjoy dinner, a program, and then a silent and live auction.
So that will be November third.Doors will open at six thirty.
We will sell half in full.Tables and information for that is on our
website. Awesome. That's Springfield Dreamcenterdot com. Correct nailed it. My
thanks Jody, Ashley, Evie andKristen. You guys, I didn't even

(30:10):
need to be here really for this, so you guys just handled it.
That's great. The least people hearof me, I think, the more
thankful they are for that. Sowell done to all of you. The
Springfield Dream Center is sounds amazing,and thank you so much for the work
that you guys do for myself,Clinton Gurley, the rest of our staff
here at iHeartRadio. Remember you canfind this show, as well as all

(30:32):
of our other versions of this showthat we air every week, at our
I Heart the Ozarks podcast page,which is of course on your iHeartRadio app.
Thanks so much for listening. Havea great rest of your day.