Update: As a result of AMOS' public action, Iowa Workforce Development Office announced it would hire an additional 100 temporary workers to handle calls, change its website and phone system, and address language barriers and eligibility questions.  

[Excerpt]

Out of the 50 refugee clients she’s helped file for unemployment, Abigail Sui said only 20 of them have received money from claims so far.

Language barriers, troubles navigating Iowa Workforce Development’s website and phone complications have left some members of Iowa’s refugee community without the money they need to support their families while they’re temporarily laid off from work due to COVID-19, Sui said.

These are some of the struggles A Mid-Iowa Organizing Strategy, also known as “AMOS,” hopes to bring to light during a virtual day of action with its members on Tuesday over Zoom.

AMOS, an organization made up of churches and non-profit groups is hosting a “virtual accountability action,” so local legislators can hear about some of the barriers Iowans face filing for unemployment.

“We knew there were people really struggling to navigate the system,” said Sally Boeckholt, a leader with AMOS and a member of First Unitarian Church of Des Moines. “There are real people being affected and sometimes those are the stories that don’t really get heard.”

[Photo by Charlie Neibergall, AP Photo]

Group Seeks Solutions for Iowans Struggling To File For Unemployment, Iowa Capital Dispatch [pdf]

In a 2018 summer house meeting campaign involving more then 500 families embedded in Des Moines schools, churches and nonprofits, AMOS leaders asked, "What matters enough to you, your family, and your community that you would raise your own taxes to see it happen?”

The stories heard in these meetings, and the leaders who emerged from them, formed an agenda AMOS took to the city manager and city council last Fall, asking them to include these items in an upcoming local option sales tax vote.  In December, AMOS celebrated when the city council passed a spending resolution for the tax measure that included five key AMOS priorities and agreed to endorse the measure and get out the vote.  For two months, AMOS leaders held civic academies, phone banked, signed up hundreds of people up to vote, and gave rides to the polls on Election Day.  

On March 5th, more than 70% of Des Moines voters voted YES on Measure A, the one-cent local option sales tax measure in the city of Des Moines.  Turnout for the election was 20% higher than a similar effort last year that did not include AMOS priorities, and the margin of support for the measure was 30% higher this year than in previous years.  AMOS worked with a diverse coalition of organizations who endorsed the measure, including AARP, the Central Iowa Taxpayers Association and the Firefighters Union.

The results are particularly impressive considering efforts by a Koch Brothers-funded group to torpedo the measure with negative campaigning.  

Because of AMOS:

• Libraries in Des Moines will expand the number of days they are open from 5 days per week to 6 days per week, while the Downtown and Franklin branches will open 7; 
• 4-6 new Rental Inspectors will be hired to improve rental housing conditions;
• 150 dilapidated and abandoned homes will be torn down or renovated each year across the city, a ten-fold increase over the 5-15 homes the city is able to address now.
• Des Moines will help fund the creation of mental health crisis services for children, with a commitment from the Mayor and other public officials to get these services up and running by June 30, 2020. 

The one-cent tax will also enable the city to maintain 13 firefighter positions, speed up the building of a new fire station on the northeast side of Des Moines, and make critical investments to improve streets, sidewalks, and sewers.

As if that were not enough, on February 25th, the city council approved funding to install lights on the basketball courts at Evelyn K Davis Park — another AMOS priority.

Vote YES for Measure and Des Moines' Future, Des Moines Register

Des Moines Metro Voters Weigh 1-cent Sales Tax, Promise of Lower Property Taxes, Des Moines Register

Des Moines voters should support the local-option sales tax on March 5, Des Moines Register

Group Pushes Des Moines to Use Sales Tax Money to Extend Library Hours, Des Moines Register

Des Moines will vote on sales tax increase in March, Des Moines Register

Local option sales tax planned for March 5 vote in Des Moines, Business Record

Des Moines Weighs in on March 5 Local Option Sales Tax Vote, WHO TV

One-cent sales tax increase could fund 'blitz on blight', KCCI TV

During the summer of 2018, AMOS leaders in Des Moines engaged more than 500 families around the question, "What matters enough to you that you would be willing to raise your own taxes to see it happen?" Out of these conversations, AMOS leaders crafted a proposal of six funding priorities to include in the city's upcoming a one-cent sales tax proposal. The now released and approved city spending resolution includes five of our funding priorities, and AMOS leaders have secured a separate commitment from the city to address the sixth.

At a press conference Monday, AMOS announced support for the local option sales tax initiative.  AMOS Children's Mental Health Team co-chair Connie McKeen, of Walnut Hills United Methodist, proclaimed it a big step for another AMOS priority: children's mental health services.

Mrs. McKeen announced the formation of a Task Force of elected officials, mental healthcare providers, and community leaders who have committed to work together to implement a Children's Mental Health Mobile Crisis Unit and Crisis Observation. This team will identify the staffing, funding, and location for these crisis services to open by June 30, 2020.

Co-Chairing this Task Force on behalf of AMOS are Dr. Linda Krypel, of First Unitarian of Des Moines and co-chair of the AMOS Children's Mental Health Team, and Teresa Bomhoff of NAMI Greater Des Moines.

Members of the Task Force include, to date, the Mayor of Des Moines, Polk County Supervisor, Des Moines Public School President, CEO of Broadlawns Hospital and other key public and private health executives.

Des Moines Weighs In On March 5 Local Option Sales Tax Vote, WHO TV

One-Cent Tax Increase Could Fund 'Blitz On Blight', KCCI

Local Option Sales Tax Planned for March 5 Vote in Des Moines, Business Record

Des Moines Will Vote on Sales Tax Increase in March, Des Moines Register

Group Pushes Des Moines to Use Sales Tax Money to Extend Library Hours, Des Moines Register

AMOS's live video of the press conference

At a fateful meeting with the youth of Grace United Methodist Church in 2004, AMOS organizers and leaders learned that young people not involved in organized sports needed more recreational opportunities.  Although several “skate zones" or "plazas” were located in neighborhood parks outside the city, there was no large dedicated skate park in the City of Des Moines. 

AMOS leaders conducted research actions, including site visits to skate parks around the country, and began to build the political will for the park.  At an AMOS assembly with over 200 people, leaders challenged Councilmembers Christine Hensley and Chris Coleman to support the building of a dedicated park for skateboarding. Both agreed. 

Since then, AMOS leaders were at the center of action to promote the park, conducting meetings with Parks & Recreation staff and succeeding in persuading the City to build its first skate park: the Four Mile Skatepark in Northeast Des Moines as a short-term measure.

When efforts to identify funding for the larger park stalled, leaders persisted -- helping develop a plan to raise $3.5 million in private funds.  Fundraising was supercharged in 2015 when The Leadership Circle of the Community Foundation awarded a challenge grant of $500,000 in the hopes of encouraging other contributions.  Since then, Nix and Virginia Laurisden, for whom the park will be named, donated $1 million.  Other individual donors and community foundations invested monies towards the effort.

On October 15th, a groundbreaking ceremony was organized to celebrate the culmination of this AMOS-initiated effort.  The park, to be completed in 2019, will be the largest open-air skate park in the United States, with additional designs to meet Olympic-level qualifying competitions.

14 Years in the Making, Construction on Des Moines' Skate Park is Officially Underway, Des Moines Register

Skatepark Breaks Ground, Donor Backs $250K Sculpture, Business Record

A Brief History of the Des Moines Regional Skatepark, AMOS

Leaders packed a church hall to engage Des Moines candidates around including AMOS priorities in key investments in lower income areas of the city.  Candidates who participated and agreed to support the agenda included: Scott Sanders (Des Moines City Manager), Frank Cownie (Des Moines Mayor), Chris Coleman (Des Moines City Councilmember), Josh Mandelbaum (Des Moines City Councilmember Ward 3), and Linda Westergaard (Des Moines City Councilmember Ward 4). 

The City Manager committed to including AMOS priorities in a one-cent local option sales tax increase planned for March 2019. AMOS priorities included: expansion of library hours to at least 6 days per week, lighting in two inner city parks, addressing the growing number of dilapidated/abandoned homes in 50314 and 50316 zip codes, doubling the number of rental housing inspectors, startup funds for a children's mental health crisis unit / observation center, and basic infrastructure improvements (i.e. streets, sidewalks, sewers, and snow removal).

Leaders plan to follow up with public officials who made commitments in early 2019 to ensure their fulfill their pledges.

Group Pushes Des Moines to Use Sales Tax Money to Extend Library Hours, Des Moines Register

After holding 200 house meetings involving thousands of Ankeny residents, hundreds of AMOS leaders told those stories to candidates for state legislative office and secured commitments from most of them on several mental health-related items. Most candidates for Iowa House District 37 and House District 38 public committed to a) introduce legislation for the creation and funding of a loan-forgiveness program for mental care providers, b) co-sponsor legislation to grant counties the local authority to adjust taxes for mental health services and c) participating in a mental health caucus in the upcoming session.

Clergy from a cross-section of denominations told powerful stories about the need for such services in their communities. Leaders explained the correlation between financial insecurity and mental illness.

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During a house meeting campaign in member congregations, AMOS organizers encountered countless workers, many of them Black, struggling to find decent work. In response, members of AMOS created Project IOWA to simultaneously fix the "skills gap" in the labor market and train people into living wage work. The Des Moines Register reports that since its inception, Project IOWA has graduated 205 people, 40% of which are Black, and making on average $14 / hour.

The Struggle to Help People Find Better Jobs, Des Moines Register