Dream City, an Iowa City-based nonprofit that offers leadership programs and opportunities for youths, families and entrepreneurs, started as a response to young boys who were growing up without fathers and needed a safe space.
Frederick Newell, executive director of Dream City in Iowa City, had his first child at age 17. He enrolled at the University of Iowa and brought his child with him throughout his four years of college – no child care.
He wanted to show others the significance of fathers having a strong and active role in their children’s lives, he said.
“I really wanted to be able to show fathers that you could also follow in my footsteps, because it’s doable,” Newell said during a recent interview at the newly renovated Iowa City headquarters of Dream City. “It wasn’t easy.”
One of Newell’s professors, Sara Sanders, now dean of the UI College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, saw what he was doing and urged him to put a framework around it and create a nonprofit.
And then early supporter and community leader Kenya Badgett donated her home to Dream City for its first year, with all the bills paid — light, gas, water, internet, Newell said. Dream City was founded on May 30, 2012.
“So we had a launch pad [to] start what we’re doing [with the] after-school program,” Newell said. “We started sports for some of the boys, we did academic supports [tutoring for the youths that Dream City was serving], and then we had a father’s group out of that space.”
Soon enough, the organization outgrew its humble beginnings and moved to its newly renovated space at 611 Southgate Ave. in Iowa Cityin February of 2025. It acquired the space from the church that owned it and did a “total renovation” of the 12,000-square-foot building, funded in part by a $3 million grant from the city of Iowa City. It had its grand opening on Aug. 24, Newell said.
Over the years, Dream City has grown its programming. In 2014, it added a performance arts academy and started to include young women. In 2016, the nonprofit expanded its fatherhood academy into “more of a family academy,” Newell said.
And then, in 2021, Dream City partnered with several community leaders to hold its first diversity market, which in its first year had more than 40 vendors, who were people of color or from another underserved population.
“And then that expanded to how Dream City got into some of the economic development work that we’re currently doing with underserved entrepreneurs,” Newell said.
One insight Newell learned was there were food vendors who did not have their licenses.
“Even at the second market, someone from the Food Safety Department told them that they could not sell their food unless it was cooked in a commercial kitchen,” he said. “Even then, in 2021, we knew that as an organization, we wanted to be able to provide a space for individuals like that. Never, really, never would have thought that three years later that we will have a home for all of those individuals.”
Dream City’s entrepreneurship programming is called Impact Builders Hub, Newell said, and it includes an approximately 1,500-square-foot kitchen on the main floor. There are also two different event spaces, as well as a micro-retail space that houses a barber shop.
Additionally, Dream City has a podcast studio and a coworking space.
Part of the model involves charging a fee for entrepreneurs to use the spaces, although Newell said in the first year, with support from the city, “We’ve kind of subsidized all the different leases that people have in this space.”
The reason Newell wants to help food entrepreneurs is to combat food insecurity in his community, he said.
“Every day, no matter what, there are kids and families who come here hungry,” he said. “So for us, by being able to provide a space for food entrepreneurs at a discounted rate, our hope is that they’ll help to feed families and young people in this community that are hungry.”
Bob Goodfellow, vice president of the board of directors at Dream City, said Newell is interested in connecting people who want to mentor entrepreneurs of color.
He said Dream City has held events where it hosts everything from business owners to accountants to marketing professionals to “just give attendees the opportunity to ask questions and gain knowledge and learn where resources are available for them. And these are folks that otherwise frequently don’t have a lot of connections in the community and don’t know exactly where to turn,” he said.
He said if Dream City can make headway in Iowa City, it can have a “snowball effect.”
“There are not enough entities out there that are specifically devoted toward working with people of color in the community,” Goodfellow said. “And I think historically, that’s been true, and I commend the city of Iowa City for having the vision to reach out and help that specific demographic in our community.”
Terrence Thames, president of the Dream City board of directors, said the organization is “happy to be a part of that overall process to help elevate those people [who are] over-challenged and under-resourced. And that doesn’t have a color. You know, every type of color of people are impacted by being over-challenged, economically, under-resourced.”