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The Directors Council's Advocacy Agenda: Advancing One Economy in Polk County
The Directors Council (TDC) is committed to advancing systemic change across Greater Des Moines through bold advocacy, community collaboration, and data-informed strategies that reflect the needs of Black Polk County residents and our broader community. These advocacy priorities are grounded in our One Economy: A Path Forward report and shaped by lived experiences, public systems data, and community voice. Together, we're dismantling systemic barriers and building pathways to economic equity.​​​
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Our Vision: One Economy for All
The Directors Council's first advocacy agenda represents a turning point in addressing the systemic barriers that have limited opportunity for Black residents in Polk County. This work isn't just about policy—it's about people, families, and futures. Through strategic focus on housing stability, civic engagement, and early childhood access, we're creating a comprehensive approach to economic equity that recognizes how these issues intersect and compound. Our One Economy framework demands that we address root causes, not just symptoms, and that we center the voices and experiences of those most impacted by inequitable systems.​
Priority 1: Community Engagement
One Economy Areas: Education, Health Employment, Financial Inclusion,
Strategy: Lead, Local Policy, Fiscal, Integrated
Priority 2: Early Childcare
One Economy Areas: Education, Health, Employment, Financial Inclusion
​Strategy: Support, Local Policy, Fiscal, Integrated
Priority 3: Housing Stability
One Economy Areas: Housing, Financial Inclusion, Health
Strategy: Lead, Local Policy, Fiscal, Integrated
Priority 1: Community Engagement
& Civic Engagement
The Equity Case: Democracy Works Best When Everyone Can Participate
Civic systems are only as strong as the public’s ability to understand, access, and influence them. Yet for many Black residents in Polk County, civic participation has been shaped by exclusion rather than inclusion. Historic underrepresentation in decision-making bodies, opaque policymaking processes, and limited access to leadership pathways have created a civic gap where those most impacted by policy are often the least empowered to shape it.
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This gap is not driven by apathy. It is driven by barriers. When policymaking feels inaccessible or predetermined, trust erodes. When civic education is not culturally relevant or practically grounded, participation declines. And when leadership pipelines fail to reflect community demographics, policies miss lived realities.​
One Economy community engagement data consistently shows that residents want to participate but need clearer pathways. People want to understand how city councils work, how county budgets are decided, how state legislation moves, and how community voice can meaningfully influence outcomes. Civic disengagement is not a personal failure. It is a systems design failure.​
Building a more equitable economy requires more than policy solutions. It requires an informed, engaged public with the tools to hold systems accountable and co-create solutions.
Policy Directions: Building a Safety Net Before Families Fall
TDC champions investments in affordable early childhood education and childcare as key drivers of economic mobility and workforce participation.
Public Education: Offer community education that demystifies the policymaking process and clarifies how decisions are made across local and state levels.
Leadership Development: Expand resident and leadership training through programs such as the African American Leadership Academy and Future Leaders Guide to Public Service.
Policy Level: Partner with public institutions to promote transparency, responsiveness, and inclusive access to civic processes.
Priority 2: Early Childhood Education & Childcare
The Equity Case: When Childcare Costs More Than College
For Black families in Polk County earning half the median income of white and Asian households, childcare costs present an impossible mathematical equation. Quality childcare routinely consumes 20-25% of household income—more than triple the federal affordability benchmark of 7%. When nearly half of Black children in the county live in poverty, these costs don't just strain budgets—they force devastating tradeoffs that echo across every dimension of family stability.
One Economy research connects childcare access directly to employment gaps, labor force participation, and long-term income mobility for Black families. When childcare is unaffordable or unavailable, caregivers—predominantly women—must leave jobs, reduce hours, or accept lower-paying positions with flexible schedules. This isn't just about one family's income loss; it's about systematic exclusion from career advancement, retirement savings, and generational wealth building.
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The cascading effects are brutal: high childcare costs force impossible choices between rent, utilities, medical bills, and transportation. A family might keep housing by pulling children from quality early learning—sacrificing the child's developmental foundation to avoid eviction. Or they might maintain childcare enrollment while falling behind on rent—keeping the parent employed today while risking homelessness tomorrow.
20-25%
On Average, Black median-income households will spend 20-25% of their annual income on childcare for one child.
Policy Directions: Building a Safety Net Before Families Fall
TDC champions investments in affordable early childhood education and childcare as key drivers of economic mobility and workforce participation.
Provider Equity: Advocate for sustainable reimbursement rates and support providers offering non-standard care hours.
Policy Level: Advance local and state policy alignment to expand affordability, access, and quality of early childcare programs.
Policy and Funding Alignment: Support city and state legislative action to invest in teacher wages and career pathways to grow access to licensed care.
Priority 3: Housing Stability & Equity
A 41-Point Gap That Structural Barriers Built
Polk County's 41 percentage point homeownership gap between Black and white households represents one of the starkest racial disparities in our community. What makes this gap particularly damning is what researchers call the "unexplained remainder"—even after controlling for income, education, and age, most of this disparity persists. This isn't about individual choices or financial literacy. This is structural exclusion, encoded in lending practices, zoning decisions, and generational wealth transfer that systematically locks Black families out of homeownership.
For Black renters who can't access homeownership, the rental market offers no refuge. Higher rent burden coupled with lower financial cushions creates constant vulnerability to eviction. A single unexpected expense—car repair, medical bill, childcare crisis—can trigger a cascade toward housing instability.
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Iowa Legal Aid's intervention data tells a powerful story: their eviction diversion efforts in Polk County prevented more than 4,096 evictions, protecting over 9,000 household members, including 3,500 children. Critically, 50% of tenants receiving services were people of color and 67% were women—quantitative proof that eviction is fundamentally a racial and gender equity issue.
Policy Directions: Building a Safety Net Before Families Fall
TDC supports reforms that promote housing security, reduce evictions, and preserve affordable homeownership.
Eviction Expungement and Legal Access: Expand access to legal counsel at first appearance and support clean slate policies for eviction records.
Housing Opportunities Education: Expand community knowledge and understanding of housing programs currently available.
Advocacy for Local Housing Programs: Ensure city and county housing programs are accessible, equitable, and aligned with community needs—especially regarding eligibility criteria, maintenance requirements, and unit size .
Policy Level: Local and State coordination to align funding, legal aid, and preservation tools.
Strategic Alignment: Advocate for full implementation of the Des Moines Citywide Housing Strategy and address housing barriers identified in One Economy: A Path Forward, including limited credit access, gaps in housing education, and lack of awareness of existing programs.
The Path Forward: From Agenda to Action
This advocacy agenda represents more than policy recommendations—it's a theory of change grounded in the understanding that racial equity requires coordinated intervention across interconnected systems. Medical debt drives housing instability. Housing instability disrupts employment. Childcare access enables employment. Employment builds financial inclusion. Each priority reinforces the others, creating either vicious cycles of exclusion or virtuous cycles of opportunity.
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The Directors Council brings unique convening power, combining expertise across sectors with trusted relationships throughout Polk County. We can bridge the gap between data and action, between policy design and community implementation, between advocacy and funding. Our role is to maintain urgency, coordinate partners, mobilize resources, and hold ourselves accountable to measurable progress.
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Over the next 24 months, we will track specific metrics for each priority: medical debt forgiven, evictions prevented, childcare slots created. We will regularly report progress, adjust strategies based on evidence, and celebrate victories while remaining honest about setbacks. This is ambitious work, but the cost of inaction—measured in families displaced, children's potential unfulfilled, and community cohesion eroded—is far higher than the cost of transformation.