There are multiple organizations in the Des Moines Metro that are collaborating to provide financial, employment, and food resources in response to the new coronavirus and COVID-19 pandemic. The Evelyn K. Davis Center for Working Families is one of them.
It’s only .1 miles away from the DMACC Urban campus, but the Center is closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and DMACC guidelines. In spite of the closure, Heather Jones, Financial Education Coordinator, said, “All of our services are always free and financial appointments can be booked online.”
Marvin DeJear, the Center’s director added, “We’ve transitioned all coaching services to where they need to be, over the phone or a web-blend, using some sort of video conferencing if necessary. All our job, financial and small business coaches are still available to help people.” 
DeJear spoke about “A.L.I.C.E” families using the United Way of Central Iowa’s acronym for the working poor: “Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed.” It includes the households that are above the Federal Poverty Level but can’t afford to pay for their basic needs: shelter, food, transportation, child care, health care and technology. When living paycheck to paycheck, A.L.I.C.E. families must often choose between these critical needs.
Although A.L.I.C.E. families span all demographic categories in Iowa, the research shows wealth and income inequalities based on race, gender orientation, ethnicity, and sex exist and are only exacerbated by the novel coronavirus.
DeJear has seen these reports and said that it’s similar to what happened in the Great Recession: many of these same black and brown families still haven’t “bounced back yet or have had to do something completely different.”
He said, “We’ve seen a lot of cases prior to this where a lot of people had lost a lot of hope when it came to their finances. Just even having the ability to sit down with one of our financial coaches to really walk them through all the different scenarios and show them that there’s light at the end of this tunnel, it really helps.”
He emphasized the importance of “intentional” work that will need to happen now and after the COVID-19 pandemic. The Center is part of an alliance of organizations that started the Iowa Small Business Relief Fund for businesses with 1-7 employees that are not recipients of federal and state relief dollars.
There are other local organizations, such as EMBARC and the Refugee Alliance of Central Iowa (RACI), who are collaborating to provide videos, news and novel coronavirus resources in multiple languages via phone and online.
The United Way of Central Iowa has provided the 211 phone number for information and community resources.
DeJear said, “A lot of DMACC Urban students may not know, but we moved across the street to actually be closer to them. We want to make sure they know that we’re here to support them through all these different ups and downs that they’re experiencing and really that we’re here for them.”
Call the Center’s mainline at 515-697-7700 or check out their Facebook page for more community resources and updates.
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