QC That’s Where Service Starts with Showing Up

Jerry Jones has built a life around service. Not just to the Quad Cities, but to the people who call it home. In this conversation, we get to know the man behind that commitment, from growing up in the Chicago suburbs to finding his way to Augustana College and eventually making the Quad Cities a place he didn’t just work, but chose to stay.

Today, Jerry leads the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center, where his work is rooted in a simple idea: investing in people strengthens an entire community. He shares how his early experiences working with young people shaped his career and why he believes deeply in creating opportunities for the next generation.

We talk about the King Center from his perspective. This includes the after-school programs, summer day camp, murals, STEAM lab and community events that give young people a place to learn, create and belong. Jerry also takes us behind the scenes of the Center’s unique relationship with the City of Rock Island and how that structure has helped make its work sustainable for generations.

The King Center is also responsible for an annual celebration called Soul of the City, which brings together community members to enjoy food, music, games, vendors, and much more! That event will be held September 5, 2026.

If you’ve ever wondered what makes someone choose the Quad Cities and stay, this conversation with Jerry Jones is worth a listen.

QC, That's Where is a podcast powered by Visit Quad Cities. Through the people, partnerships, and personalities woven throughout the Quad Cities region, you'll meet real Quad Citizens and hear the untold stories of the region.
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Transcript

Community Pride And Local Influence

SPEAKER_05 0:00

Do you see the Quad Cities as a prideful community that people are in your day-to-day are proud to say, I am a Quad citizen, I feel like I belong here. Do you sense that?

SPEAKER_01 0:12

I sense that even stronger today than maybe even 10 years ago.

SPEAKER_05 0:16

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 0:16

And I think it happens because people feel like they have a real influence on policies, changes in their community. Because again, we have the opportunity to have real meaningful and impactful relationships rather than just having some sort of performative sort of relationship.

SPEAKER_04 0:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 0:38

We can have real conversations with our aldermen. We can have real conversations with our mayors. We can have real conversations with Bisiquat cities and people get to hear those messages. In other words, there's a level of intimacy that can't hap that doesn't happen in other larger areas.

SPEAKER_00 0:54

Where do you find a family of communities connected by the Mississippi River and grounded by real people with real stories? Where explorers, entrepreneurs, investors, and dreamers discover a place that's world-class, hassle-free, and refreshingly genuine. QC That's Where.

Meet Jerry Jones In Union Station

SPEAKER_00 1:15

Coming to you from the Union Station Podcast Studio, this is QC That's Where.

SPEAKER_05 1:26

Welcome to QC That Square. I'm your host, Katrina. Today I am with Executive Director of the Martin Luther King Junior Center in Rock Island, Jerry Jones. How are you, Jerry?

SPEAKER_01 1:36

I am really good today, thank you. Happy to be here.

SPEAKER_05 1:38

Yay, I'm so happy that you're here. Um before we started recording, we were talking about this room a little bit and how we are really excited to see just revitalization in you know these historic buildings. This we're sitting in a 100-year-old train station. Yeah, and so the fact that we can modernize and repurpose and reuse, I'm all for. Okay. So tell me a little bit.

From Chicago Suburbs To Augustana

SPEAKER_05 2:16

I know you are not a Quad City native, but you came from the Chicago suburbs.

unknown 2:21

Right.

SPEAKER_05 2:21

What brought you to the QC?

SPEAKER_01 2:24

Well, a while ago, I won't tell you what year, I went to, I decided to come to the Quad Cities to attend Augustana. Um and I uh graduate there with a degree in psychology. But I also met my wife there, and she's from the western suburbs of Chicago. So we have a really good idea of what uh um a dense city life can be like. And we really preferred this balance here. There's enough here to have that big city feel, but enough um, but not too large, so you have that dense feel where you're just trapped in. Yeah. Um, and the cost of living, and it was a great it is a great place to raise a family as well. So we decided to stay here after we graduated.

SPEAKER_05 3:03

Okay. And did you propel immediately into the MLK Junior Community Center?

SPEAKER_01 3:09

Absolutely not. Okay.

Choosing Youth Work Over Law

SPEAKER_01 3:11

All right. Uh when I graduated, it was very difficult getting jobs out anywhere. So, but I had a degree in psychology. I sent out probably 60 to 70 resumes, finally being able to land at family resources working with uh troubled youth in residential care.

SPEAKER_02 3:26

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 3:26

It's one of the greatest jobs I've ever had. Um, a very difficult job, very rewarding job, and not a high-paying job. So I worked two jobs at that point in time. Moved on to working with kids in foster care, and from there went on to work with kids in crisis through Robert Young, and then finally in 1998, uh, became a program director at the Martin Luther King Center with after school programming.

SPEAKER_05 3:49

So, did you know, kind of coming out of Augie, that you wanted to help focus on youth and youth resources?

SPEAKER_01 3:56

That's an interesting story. Actually, when I was going to Augustana, up until my senior year, I was going to be a lawyer. In fact, I even took to LSAT, did well. But there was a community project that we did, and I went to Bethany Holmes and worked with kids. Yeah. And it changed my trajectory altogether. Aside from the fact I did some research on the lifestyle of a lawyer, and it's not necessarily conducive to a healthy life.

SPEAKER_02 4:19

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 4:19

But getting real satisfaction working with kids, it spoke to my heart. So I pursued that avenue and I haven't regretted it.

Why Quad Cities Feels Livable

SPEAKER_05 4:27

What did you what was your first impression of the Quad Cities when you came here to go to school? Like, did you know, yeah, I think I could, you know, you had pros and cons, I'm sure, coming from big city life to a more like um hassle-free community for lack of a better term. Um, did you know that you'd stick around?

SPEAKER_01 4:46

No. Yeah. Because the first impression was corn.

SPEAKER_05 4:49

Oh yes, the classic thing.

SPEAKER_01 4:51

There's been a lot more development in this area since I've come here.

SPEAKER_03 4:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:55

Um, and it took some time, but I began to appreciate right, a less hassle-free lifestyle.

SPEAKER_03 5:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:00

Um, when I was in Chicago, I worked um downtown, and I'll tell you what, the commute daily from downtown, even taking the train, yeah, is two hours one way. So that's four hours lost. Yeah. And that's four hours of life lost. And even driving, it was just incredible. So when I'm here, even now when people complain about, oh, it's gonna take me 20 minutes, I I can't understand that. I I just it's too far, it's over the bridge. I can't understand that. So I really appreciate just the lack of traffic, but more importantly, um the ability to build real relationships here because you're not just so confined.

SPEAKER_05 5:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 5:37

Um that I can totally relate to that. I I came originally from the Detroit area of Michigan. Um, my dad had a job close to Detroit. The commute was an hour, and people just do it and did it, and it was like the normal part of life. And then moving here and living here, and you know, I have a husband and kids now, and so I see the value in a 15 to 20 or less minute commute. It's it's everything, and I'm so thankful for it.

SPEAKER_01 6:04

Absolutely. And when kids are growing up and they're calling you from the school and you can get there in 10 minutes, or yeah, the convenience is amazing, and yet having so many amenities that are quite similar to a larger city, it's really perfect in a lot of ways.

SPEAKER_05 6:18

Yeah, I totally agree. So, the the center, so you got involved there from start to where you're at now, you know, becoming part of the executive director, or sorry, uh more leadership-oriented part of the staff in your role now as executive director.

Growing Into MLK Center Leadership

SPEAKER_05 6:39

What did you see in the center that made you go, okay, I want to take the responsibility of this role and I I want to stick around here?

SPEAKER_01 6:46

So I I will never forget the first day I walked in for the interview, and it was just a familiar feeling. It reminded me of so many places I've been, even in the Chicagoland area.

SPEAKER_03 6:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:56

So that familiarity struck me immediately. The opportunity to work with youth in a less restrictive environment so that we can really meet their needs holistically spoke to me deeply. Um, to have such flexibility to be able to use the training and my imagination to really make a difference in youth lives really spoke to me. It was 1998 that I became a program director, and then in 2001 the position as as of executive director came up. And honestly, I did not think I was ready for that, but there were so many people that were encouraging me to go for it. And I took their advice. Um it was a day-long interview process, it was grueling, and I didn't think I had a shot, but I came out as a director back in 2001 and haven't looked back since.

SPEAKER_05 7:43

What would you say are your favorite things that you've experienced along the way working, you know, as a as a service member of the center?

SPEAKER_01 7:52

Oh my gosh. Um working in our summer day camp where we get to work with over 150 kids on a daily basis and in a variety of activities is something I really, really enjoy. But probably the most gratifying is when kids come back as adults to talk about their incredible experiences at the King Center and where they're at now. For instance, at our memorial service, our uh MC was one of the camp kids or one of the King Center kids, and he spoke uh eloquently about the impact that people in on my team has made on his life, and now he's a board member, full circle.

SPEAKER_02 8:29

Cool.

SPEAKER_01 8:30

The only downside now is that I see like um uh the grandchildren of the kids I used to work with.

SPEAKER_02 8:37

Oh no!

SPEAKER_01 8:39

So that ages me a bit reminds me of how old I am. But the other side of it is that doing this work keeps me energized, so I don't feel nearly as old as I really am.

SPEAKER_05 8:47

If age is nothing but a, you know, a number, right? It's it's how you feel. Do you do you find that like the King Center has such an impact on people that it's like a um like a cycle, like you said cycle, but like a a self-feeding cycle. Like the kids come in, they grow up in it, and then they come back as adults and they want to help, they want to volunteer work for you all, or you know, be part of it in some way.

SPEAKER_01 9:13

That is that is absolutely true. In fact, there's probably two or three of our full-time staff that were King Center kids now.

SPEAKER_04 9:19

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 9:20

And some of our our camp counselors, they've been King Center kids. They want to come back. One great example of how people still want to stay engaged is that when we advertise like a summer day camp, we put it out there and by word of mouth we're filled in hours rather than days or weeks. Oh yeah. Um, so we become a real anchor, a real um vital resource for that area in Rock Island. But we're beyond that now. We are a quad cities organization, so our programs expand beyond that, but we can still say stay loyal and relevant to the community in which we're located, which is one of the most impoverished and distressed areas in all of Rock Island County, let alone Rock Island.

SPEAKER_05 9:58

You mentioned that it is a nonprofit, which I think people know, but also a city department.

A Nonprofit That Is Also City

SPEAKER_05 10:04

Can you explain what that means?

SPEAKER_01 10:06

I'll be really over-simplistic in the beginning and then expand.

SPEAKER_05 10:09

Okay, perfect.

SPEAKER_01 10:10

When people ask me about that, um I essentially I tell them, well, that means I have three bosses essentially. I answer to the city manager, I answer to my board of directors, and above that the city council as well, providing direction. But really, um this was a vision that happened in 1975, and I I I view it as really um innovative for that time. The King Center was born out of a model cities plan, um, and it came from uh a program um from uh Lyndon B. Johnson, but it required citizens, communities to be involved in the planning of revitalization. So it wasn't just a city official, it was the citizens, stakeholders, and city officials coming together. And it was a large comprehensive plan, and one special project of it was the Martin Luther King Center. And so built this center to be a central location for social services in the community, but also recognized that for it to be sustainable, we need to have a good funding source or a good foundation. And so immediately, once it's complete, we opened in March 22nd, 1975. It was made a department of human resources, and then later elevated to its own department, landing to its strong foundation and sustainability to have impact in the community. This is not something you typically see where I have looked, and there may be two or three similar organizations across the nation. Um, but I do think it's a model that's worked very well as long as there's a complete understanding of roles and responsibilities between departments and city council and boards and city manager.

SPEAKER_05 11:46

Could you see a model like this catching on in other communities? Have you had anyone reach out saying, How do you do it? We want to bring this model here.

SPEAKER_01 11:55

I've seen we I've had um a couple of communities come forth and I've seen other initiatives that are quite similar to this model.

SPEAKER_04 12:03

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 12:04

Um be and what's beneficial to this is that municipalities rarely have enough resources to really provide the capacity they need to move the needle. I think the Quad Cities does a great job of that. But it lends towards creating uh silos in city apartments. Departments like ours have the opportunity to connect across departments so that we can have a more meaningful impact with some of the services we're providing. For instance, um we were able to have a community meeting to talk about the impact of moving the Centennial Bridge from and that's it that's very important for Davenport and for Rock Island. Yeah. But you get real community feedback at our center from real people so that there can be a an informed decision make. And that's not something easily a city can do.

SPEAKER_05 12:52

I find it interesting that um, you know, a model like this and you all have been able to um basically pave the way for how a nonprofit can also, you know, work hand in glove with the city. Um and you know, quad cities being a regional destination of multiple cities, you know, you're benefiting every everybody benefits from the work of the King Center. And it's it's cool because it's one of those things that the Quad Cities is, you know, pioneering. Yet again, it I I think if you step back and look at the Quad Cities holistically, it's a community of firsts. You know, there are so many firsts that happen here that you know I think if people know about it and are aware, it's it's totally it's it's bragging rights, it's community pride, it's something that um you know makes you proud to share. Hey, I live in the Quad Cities and we, you know, we function this way, um, hand in hand with our city, or we uh had the first NFL football game at Douglas Park, or um, you know, a hundred different things of just the first the pioneers and um you know leading globally in in agriculture, all of these things um really

When Pride Means Your Voice Matters

SPEAKER_05 14:05

make for really good resident pride. And is that something as somebody who works you know serving the community? Do you see the Quad Cities as a prideful community that people are in your day-to-day are proud to say, I am a quad citizen, I feel like I belong here. Do you sense that?

SPEAKER_01 14:27

I sense that even stronger today than maybe even 10 years ago. Okay. And I think it happens because people feel like they have a real influence on um policies, um, changes in their community. Because again, we have the opportunity to have real um meaningful and impactful relationships rather than just having some sort of performative sort of relationship. Yeah. We can have real conversations with our aldermen, we can have real conversations with our mayors, we can have real conversations with visit quad cities, and people get to hear those messages. In other words, there's a level of intimacy that can't happen that doesn't happen in other larger areas. And so that does cultivate pride to know that, hey, my voice matters. At least it can have influence. The opposite is true as well, though, is when folks don't feel that their voice is heard, they also have easy access to make sure that their discontent is heard as well. And that lends to pride as well, I would say.

SPEAKER_05 15:28

That's a great point, too. It's really important that people feel like they have the avenues to make a change if they see that they need to do so. Um when did you feel, or was there a moment where you felt like I'm a quad citizen? Like this is my place?

SPEAKER_01 15:42

Wow, that's a great question. I think the first time I complained about parking being a block away was when I was a quad city.

SPEAKER_05 15:52

That's fantastic. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:54

Um when you drive into Chicago to get a block away is a score.

SPEAKER_05 15:58

Oh my gosh. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 16:00

But here it's different, and uh, that's when I I yeah, I remember that moment, wait a minute. Uh yeah, I've I've been here for a while. I have expectations now.

SPEAKER_05 16:09

I understand. I found myself having the same kind of like thoughts, like, oh yeah, I I used to drive 45 minutes to my internship. Now I now I walk 45 seconds from the parking lot, and it's a whole new thing. Um that's fun. So can we talk about um soul of

Soul Of The City Takes Shape

SPEAKER_05 16:26

the city? Please. Okay, so doing a little background research. Family Fun Day is where it originated. And and so is the King Center the owner of this event, or what did it tell me about like how it originated and what is it today?

SPEAKER_01 16:42

Absolutely. Family Fun Day was there before I got to the Martin with the King's Center. Okay. It had gone through um a bit of an evolution before I got there. It is meant to be an opportunity for a community to come together to enjoy each other, to celebrate, to have a good time, to eat, to dance, to enjoy the activities.

SPEAKER_03 16:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:00

There was even a time when it was in downtown Rock Island and had a carnival field. They had rides and everything. Um, but it came back to the neighborhood and it happened at the King Center grounds where we arranged for it to be a variety of activities, but more importantly, making sure that the community knows that they're welcome to enjoy everything. And when I say the community, not just the neighborhood, but the entire quad cities. Yeah. And so it always began and still begins with a parade that comes down 9th Street, starting at Francis Willard School, and we get a variety of folks involved and engaged, and we try to make sure it's hyper-local, but bring some other actual regions so that people can enjoy that as well. Cool. Comes down 9th Street, and then um it used to end at the Martin Luther King Center, and just an incredible amount of food, um, which is my favorite part. Um, but other activities for the family, and every year it is just incredibly gratifying to see how much unity uh you can see in the community from this event. But now it's evolved into something even bigger because we saw Family Fund Day as quite large and a great opportunity to expand beyond that. And so we've partnered with Rock Island Parks and Rec with the Community Caring Conference uh with the Rock Island County NAACP and others to move it to Franklin Field, which is down the street from us, but it's a large field that used to hold house a school, but now it's a school-owned lot. It has a it's central to the neighborhood, and it gave us the opportunity to broaden it even further, to the point that last year the event was so incredibly well received that um it bolstered community pride. There were so many superlatives that are expressed to me, to my team. So we're incredibly excited this September 5th to see if we can duplicate that and stand on the ground to go even larger in the future.

SPEAKER_05 18:49

So if you're listening before September 5th, definitely attend Soul of the City. Um, if you're listening after, please listen to what it will be next year in 2027, right? Absolutely. Because this isn't going anywhere. We've seen decades and decades of success at this event. What do you think it is that you can you know hang your hat on with Soul of the City that makes it something that's worth recreating again year after year and building upon year after year?

SPEAKER_01 19:18

Um people always not surprised, but feel so incredibly welcome and enjoy so many different activities. Mind you, it's not just food, they're information vendors. So you have an opportunity to find out what's going on in quad cities. Yeah. There's education about, um, we plan to have education about voting opportunities. They're the inflatable rides are what kids just uh love and adore. Yeah. So now you can bring your kids, they can do, and it's free. Let's not forget that aspect. It's free. Now, we do invite food vendors and they do charge for the food, but otherwise, it's a great event to come to with your family and not to worry about costs. So it's a real opportunity to connect on different levels and different ways for the entire community. Our biggest challenge is getting more and more people to come because there's so many other things going on during that day. But last year I would say we had uh close to 3,000 people come to the Soul City. So I want to be careful I don't get too many folks coming.

SPEAKER_05 20:16

It sounds like something that would be great for somebody who maybe just moved here or somebody who's got family or friends visiting um in town, and it'd like a good way to showcase a sampling of what the Quad Cities can offer. Absolutely from the food to the music to, like you said, the information vendors, just what is out there. Um very cool thing for you guys to be at the center of.

unknown 20:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 20:42

And so this year for September 5th, 2026, want to make sure we're identifying the date so that we don't disappoint anybody. But um, so September 5th is coming up just a couple weeks away. Um what what is like the one thing if you had a pitch just you gotta come for the the blah, like what would you say is that is that hook that people need to come check out this year? Oh, there's just so many things. And that's great.

SPEAKER_01 21:12

Um come for the variety of food. There's probably uh 15 or more different food trucks or vendors there, so you're gonna get a sampling of what exists in the quad cities. Um, and that's fantastic for me. But also, it's a safe, wonderful place for you kids to have a great time. So if you have a family, you get to have a taste of everything. But if you're gonna ask me, come to eat.

SPEAKER_05 21:36

Come to eat.

SPEAKER_01 21:37

Please.

SPEAKER_05 21:38

I'll be there. That sounds fantastic. And my kids love the balance house inflatable.

SPEAKER_01 21:43

The slides, the jousting, all of that. The jousting, yes.

SPEAKER_05 21:47

Like on a or is it like one of those inflatable balance things? Okay, I'm I'm there. I wish I could play too. Um yeah, maybe next year. Um, so let's let's step back a little bit and talk quad

A Perfect Weekend In The QC

SPEAKER_05 21:59

cities. So you know, Jerry Jones on a Friday or Saturday. Let's assume you don't have any other obligations. What two or three things are you gonna fill your day with?

SPEAKER_01 22:12

Oh, that's great. So Friday, I'm likely gonna be down at Mercado on 5th.

SPEAKER_02 22:17

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 22:17

It's an incredible, uh wonderful event every Friday during uh the summer months if you will. Yes. And I encourage everyone to come down there and enjoy the atmosphere and enjoy the food because I'm gonna be at food places. But the music, the acts, the culture is just so phenomenal. It is one I think it's um one of the greatest things that we have in the Quad Cities. Saturday you might see me around here at the farmers market or decompressing for the week at my own home. But there are just so many different things that we could get engaged with. So that's what you're likely going to see those two things and then me decompressing but also probably getting out and meeting some friends who would live in a neighborhood as well because it's a greatly tight knit community.

SPEAKER_05 23:03

That's a good point. You mentioned earlier something that at Visit Quad Cities we push in our elevator pitch um where we say the Quad Cities is world class and hassle free. It's um small town feel with big city amenities. And I think you really hit on that and that's one thing that is probably the most like common misconception about the Quad Cities because you know people think of Midwest, Iowa, Illinois, corn is something like okay it's it's fields, it's corn, it's ag but it's it is in some places but it's also not it's it's so vibrant. We are the creative capital of the Midwest. We have such legacy organizations like the King Center um you know the the fact that you know you mentioned the farmers market it's a half block down and you can walk from there to here and get a bunch of different experiences between the Iowa and the Illinois border um walk across the I-74 bridge with the pedestrian access walkway um check out the Mississippi River literally below your feet on the Oculus there's so many things to do and so many of those like classic larger city experiences that I love to tout and I just think people don't know enough about.

unknown 24:21

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_05 24:22

And it just comes back to that resident pride and people being willing to to tout it and talk about it.

SPEAKER_01 24:28

Absolutely um you you remind me that I remember when my kids were younger we rode the bypass quite a bit. And you could go so far on either side and now my kids are a little bit older um there's we play golf and so there is an incredible amount of golf courses are incredibly uh well taken care of and affordable and that's really nice to have because I have so many choices to be entertained and to be engaged here at the Quad Cities and I don't have to travel an hour to do it.

SPEAKER_05 24:58

That's probably one of my favorite things about the Quad Cities.

Inside The King Center Today

SPEAKER_05 25:02

Bringing it back a little bit to the King Center if someone's never set foot maybe they live here and they've never been or if they're from out of town what's something you want them to know about it whether it's something that you guys do or the feeling you want people to take away after they've visited so one thing I the feeling I know that many people get from the King Center is they feel like they're at home.

SPEAKER_01 25:28

Yeah um but things I want to would would it um incite some interest into us is that we do have our after school programs there. We also have one of the few STEAM labs in the area in our building science, technology, engineering arts and math it's and we utilize that for our after school and summer day camp and as a community resource.

SPEAKER_02 25:48

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 25:48

But we also and we also have a large banquet room for folks to be able to rent for their own family events at a very low rate and it's a very high quality facility. And some of the art that we have inside and outside of a building murals inside and outside the building so it is a multi-layered experience if you come to the King Center and I will say this to anyone anyone wants to come we love to give tours of our facility as well.

SPEAKER_05 26:13

The Steam Lab you called it yeah is that an all ages like student um access place like field trips or do you guys host your own um classes in there? How does that kind of function?

SPEAKER_01 26:27

Mostly we host our own classes in there and we utilize a program called Steam on Wheels run by Sam McCullum he has his own Steam lab as well and he is uh I want to say he's an expert in the area sure um so right now we provide uh classes to a variety of age levels within our programming but we're aspiring to be able to do so within school districts okay but also it's a great facility so maybe we could rent it up for um a birthday party for a young kid to learn something. Right. So yeah it has a lot of possibilities more importantly to us though it encourages folks to dream and aspire right too many times in nonprofit world and in probably areas you have this uh sense of um the opposite of abundance and we want to people to dream beyond that that anything can be possible if we can work towards it.

SPEAKER_05 27:19

I love hearing about that and the reason I ask more is just because I um it's just another illustration of how organizations around here and the community working together it doesn't just talk the talk it walks the walk. And seeing that you know you've got a Steam lab you've got a center you've got resources and um and facilities that can be broadened and opened up to the wider region. You know it's not just not just for Rock Island you know it's for yeah it's it's for anybody who can you know set foot in and and learn about it and you know show interest. So I think that's cool that you guys have that available.

West End Revitalization Done With Residents

SPEAKER_05 27:56

Can we talk a little bit too about just like revitalization? Sure. You know we had talked a little earlier before the recording about West End revitalization. How do you see yourself helping to propel that forward?

SPEAKER_01 28:08

Absolutely. So West End revitalization is something different and important for us to be doing we are located in the Western Rock Island. There's been over time there's been some real not great positive or great changes in Rock Island but we're looking to see some reverse in that in the West End um our team focuses on being the voice and amplifying the voice of the community on what it was to see in the West End. And so our very origins comes from doing an assessment that was not devised by us but rather by the citizens implemented by the citizens and so we know it's truly authentic to what the real needs are for our community. And we also engage them to implement a plan. So we have been engaging in work around housing. We have been engaging in work around civic engagement which simply means getting the community involved in important issues like I mentioned about the bridge issue. We're getting uh we're working with youth so we can begin to work with them to be positive contributors in our community. And that's going to lead to opportunities for creating a pipeline of workforce development of talent pool that exists in the West End. This is going to lead to creating neighborhoods of choice for the Rock Island community. But we also want to make sure that it's accessible to all of those that currently live and beyond that as well. So there are five pillars to our plan and I invite people to come to our website mlkcenter.org to read the plan but to see our pillars and to see the progress we've made and there's some exciting things coming in the future we're working very well with the city of Rock Island to make sure that we can leverage our resources work together to expand our capacity and bandwidth so we can have real impact in our Rock Island community.

SPEAKER_05 29:54

Do these plans go in lockstep with all of the improvements we have seen from downtown like is it a trickle out are they connected?

SPEAKER_01 30:05

It's not as connected as it should be but it is running towards that we have great relationships with Rock Island or um the downtown development with Jack Cutlin in fact he's a neighbor of mine we have great relationships with different organizations within the West End of Rock Island and we're working very closely with the city to merge our plans actually with the Western revivalization plan to probably take a bit of a lead to make sure that we are working in conjunction with each other lockstep as you mentioned so we can have the maximum input the maximum impact.

SPEAKER_05 30:38

I've seen so many improvements in Rock Island my my family um is from Rock Island you know my my great grandparents immigrated from Sweden and and set in Rock Island. So my grandparents were here my parents grew up here so I've been in and around Rock Island my whole life essentially and just even living here is the last nearly 15 years in like my adult life I've seen a huge 180 in Rock Island and it's been fun to watch and I you know I know my I know my grandparents would be proud and they would think it was cool and and neat to see the the community working together to just okay what what works here? What do we want what do we want to see? What do we need to improve on? And so the fact that you know there's it's not just downtown focus there's other sectors of the city and the broader quad cities that are all working toward the same goal is really important.

SPEAKER_01 31:37

So what would you like to what would you like to see in you know five years, 10 years for this revitalization I would like to see being very strategic or being being very big picture a community that's very excited about the work that Western revitalization is doing. And that would manifest in their uh engagement involvement and working with Western revitalization. I would like to see a neighborhood that's looking um like it's more even more cared for than it currently is because there are some incredible citizens that do wonderful work in their homes, in parks and this can expand. Once uh we we we galvanize that community spirit and bring hope to it bring the avenues that allow them to bring their skills to bear to raise this community up and we're seeing it already we just need more resources to do so. But I'd also like to see um five years from now we're deeply involved in creating uh affordable housing that people can have pride in um in the Western of Rock Island and that's something that the city of Rock Island's always wanted to make sure we're not displacing people but rather creating a space that everyone can have access to grow thrive and continue to bring that pride to our community. And that's just the the values and goals of the King Center bursting out absolutely absolutely and making sure that we are taking uh heed to what the entire need is to be really human centered with what is needs to happen in the community because it becomes really easy to be really top down with this we know it's good for the community and it never works. The community lives closest to the issues so it has it's closest to the answers to the challenges.

QC That’s Where We Build Community

SPEAKER_05 33:25

Well said um on that note I would love to have you fill in the blank QC that's where you can build true community I love that thank you so much September 5th Soul of the city Jerry thank you so much for letting me get to know you a little bit and um all the insights about the King Center so if you haven't been check it out there's a lot happening really exciting stuff so thank you so much.

SPEAKER_00 33:55

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