Two years ago, when John Almond was first starting the nonprofit Dream Center Golden Triangle to meet the needs of Columbus’ most impoverished people, he found a young mother and her two children who were sleeping on the linoleum floor of their home.
Almond said he and some other volunteers acquired donated beds, mattresses and other necessities so all three of them could have somewhere to sleep. Then they moved on to another home — where they discovered more children, also without beds to sleep in.
“It was the same need that we kept finding when we went door to door to door,” Almond told the Columbus City Council at its meeting Tuesday. “We kept finding children that were sleeping on the floor all over Lowndes County. In an effort to find an economical solution to that, we began building beds for children.”
Because of that need, Bedz4Kidz became the West Point-based organization’s first project. Since then, the Dream Center has recruited volunteers from churches and civic organizations all over the Golden Triangle to build 220 custom-made beds and deliver them to children in need. Between that and its other programs, he said, the organization has aided more than 800 families.
With that kind of success, Almond said, the Dream Center — a licensee of the larger international organization Dream Center based in Los Angeles — is trying to expand its programming. Earlier this year, Dream Center launched its food distribution program, DC Needs, partnering with HeartLand Hands food pantry in Southhaven to provide food, hygiene products and other necessities to people in the Golden Triangle’s poorest communities. HeartLand has pledged to give them 60,000 pounds of food per month to “get them rolling,” Almond told the council Tuesday.
While Dream Center already has a warehouse in West Point where it stores the beds, Almond says he is hunting a newer, larger facility with a loading dock.
He said Lowndes County District 5 Supervisor Leroy Brooks suggested he look at the old Atmos office located next to the Columbus Municipal Complex, which Almond said is on the market for about “$18 per square foot.”
While he said he’s not trying to beg for the space, he wanted to “plant a seed” of suggestion that the city could purchase the building and lease it to Dream Center so they could use it as a warehouse to house food and their programs.
The other thing Dream Center wants is volunteers, he said. He specifically wants churches and civic groups to become involved. He’s had churches send volunteers to the organization’s current warehouse in West Point and put together dozens of beds in a few hours.
Dream Center is a faith-based organization, he said, but it recruits volunteers and churches from all denominations.
“The idea behind Dream Center is a comprehensive approach,” he said. “It’s so big. It takes faith to believe in a God that can do it, because we can’t do it. … And now there’s literally hundreds of volunteers and sponsors.”
Almond told The Dispatch Wednesday he envisions the Dream Center will grow big enough to temporarily house people trying to escape human trafficking or other circumstances where they’re in crisis. He stressed he wants to work with Golden Triangle Homeless Coalition to help those people.
He said it could also be a place to host events, such as Kidz Jam, a program that lets kids come and play in a safe, supervised place.
“They just have fun together. These are really our inner-city kids, coming from the challenged neighborhoods, that just come together and have fun together,” he said. “… It’s nothing elaborate, but it’s fun. I can just see jumping castles right there on Main Street. I’ve got a big picture for that building.”
Mayor Robert Smith did not respond to calls for comment by press time.
Ward 5 Councilman Stephen Jones said he thinks the council would be open to helping Dream Center, but he doesn’t necessarily think it’s feasible for the city to use public funds to purchase the old Atmos building just to help the organization out.
That said, he thinks the city could potentially lease another building to Dream Center and support it in other ways.
“I think that they do great work,” he said. “I definitely think that if we have a building available that we’re not using, I would definitely be in support of allowing them to use it.”
He added he thinks many residents will likely support Dream Center as well.
“I definitely think it’s a great organization, and I think the public would probably support and give money to it,” he said. “I know I would, personally.”
Brooks, who suggested Almond go before the city council, said he recently learned of the organization thinks there are opportunities in Columbus for Dream Center to grow if they secure a space near the Municipal Complex.
“I think the organization is a good organization,” Brooks said. “The county, we don’t have any facilities and we are more restricted in funding. But I think the organization has a lot of merit and if at any point we can help them, I think it’d be fine for us to do that.”
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