[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 133 (Thursday, November 18, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11488-S11489]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

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                        HONORING AKO ABDUL-SAMAD

 Mr. HARKIN. Mr. President, today I would like to call my 
colleagues' attention to the extraordinary work of one of my Iowa 
constituents. This year, Ako Abdul-Samad, a Des Moines-based activist, 
received the prestigious 2004 National Caring Award for his work with 
at-risk youth in urban areas throughout Iowa. His organization, 
Creative Visions, was founded in 1996 after gang violence killed a 
young woman in suburban Des Moines. By working with both community 
leaders as well as gang leaders, Ako has helped many youth overcome 
their troubled past.
  I am proud to call Ako Abdul-Samad not only a fellow Iowan, but also 
a friend. Since 1996, his organization has aided countless Iowa youth. 
Without his remarkable efforts and compassion, the urban areas of Iowa 
would not be the same. His progressive vision of today's youth places a 
positive outlook not only for the youth of today, but also the youth of 
the future.
  Mr. President, I ask that the following magazine article be printed 
in the Record.
  The article follows:

                 [From the Caring Magazine, Dec., 2004]

       In 1996, a young woman from an outlying suburb of Des 
     Moines, Iowa, was killed when caught in gang crossfire--a 
     tragedy frequently played out in all too many American cities 
     and towns. The community was outraged, and many people 
     approached local activist Ako Abdul-Samad and asked what 
     could be done. He replied, ``Let's talk with the kids you're 
     talking about. Let's hear what they need.''
       And so Chuck Johnson, president and CEO of Pioneer Hi-Bred 
     and president of the Des Moines Chamber of Commerce, and Tom 
     Glenn of the Des Moines Labor Institute met with Abdul-Samad 
     for hours along with 14 of Des Moines' top gang leaders. Then 
     Abdul-Samad met with the gang members alone, discussing an 
     idea he had to build an organization to help at-risk youth.
       Of the 14 gang leaders who showed up that day, six bought 
     into Abdul-Samad's idea. And thus Creative Visions was born. 
     The only thing the newly birthed organization asked of the 
     six gang members who stayed on was to stop all of their 
     illegal activity. ``We didn't ask them to denounce their gang 
     or to shed their gang colors,'' says Abdul-Samad. ``And for 
     two months we all worked out of my house--with members of the 
     Crips, Bloods, Gangsta Disciples, and Vice Lords coming and 
     going, much to my neighbors' wary curiosity.
       ``After the two months, we met again with the president of 
     Pioneer Hi-Bred, among others. The gang members walked in 
     wearing their colors, and then shortly into the meeting they 
     all got up and walked out. I kept on talking, and it seemed 
     like they weren't coming back, so I began to apologize to the 
     president and attendees. Just then, all of them walked in 
     again dressed in business suits ready to give their 
     individual presentations. Tears streamed down my face.''
       In the eight years that have since passed, only one of the 
     six original gang members who agreed to work with Abdul-Samad 
     returned to his former ways, and now even he is starting to 
     put his life back together again.
       From that small but powerful beginning, Abdul-Samad 
     estimates that Creative Visions has probably taken more guns 
     and drugs off the street than any other organization in the 
     Midwest. Their secret? Very simple, really. Give the so-
     called ``lost-to-the-streets'' youth and young adults a 
     customized, holistic program of self-development, and you 
     will see them transform into self-sufficient, productive 
     citizens. The seeds for Creative Visions were planted 15 
     years before its formal founding. ``I had a contract to visit 
     and work in the prisons statewide,'' says Abdul-Samad. ``One 
     day I was in the intake center where all the prisoners come 
     once they are sentenced. I met a 16-year-old who was about to 
     serve an adult sentence, and before I left he asked me to 
     tell his dad and uncles when I saw them that he was OK. I 
     thought he meant when I got back to Des Moines to look them 
     up. But no, he said his dad was in one state prison and his 
     uncles were in another. Then I learned that all of them had 
     been to El Dora, a well-known boys' training school that 
     supposedly helped troubled youth avoid a life of crime. 
     Obviously, we were failing to turn young lives around.''
       Abdul-Samad began to research the problem. He resigned his 
     prison contract and went to work for a Des Moines 
     organization called Urban Dreams, where he worked with kids 
     already at El Dora. ``But I wanted to catch the kids before 
     they got to that institution,'' explains Abdul-Samad. ``And I 
     was tired of hearing people say we can fix kids. You can't 
     `fix' a child or an adult. You can provide resources for them 
     to fix themselves because if the motivation to change doesn't 
     come from their own heart, it doesn't work.''
       It was at that time that the young woman in Des Moines was 
     killed in the crossfire, providing a catalyst to test Abdul-
     Samad's concept. ``With Creative Visions we showed the kids 
     we were willing to give them an opportunity,'' Abdul-Samad 
     affirms. ``We gave them a new family to belong to. We gave 
     them an opportunity to have a building--that gave them 
     ownership because they put the graffiti on the walls. Every 
     young person who was here in 1996 was involved in all aspects 
     of Creative Visions. We didn't do one program without their 
     input. We would do focus groups until we got it right. And 
     they saw me walking the talk.''
       And then came 1997 and a personal tragedy that tested 
     Abdul-Samad's faith and ability to continue to ``walk the 
     talk.'' In December his only son, ``Little Ako,'' was shot to 
     death by a young man named Rodney. ``When I went to the 
     hospital, it was full of young people waiting to see what I 
     would do,'' Abdul-Samad recalls. ``The police declared it 
     an accidental shooting. My family wanted me to press 
     charges and send the killer to jail. And the gang members 
     wanted to kill Rodney. I will tell you now that the walk 
     became very difficult for me. I worked hard at just trying 
     to think straight. Sometimes I wouldn't know what I was 
     doing.
       ``I prayed for guidance. Within a week, I called a press 
     conference and had Rodney and his mother there. And I forgave 
     Rodney in public. I said that I've already lost my son and 
     that it would do no good to lose another young man. I said if 
     I could forgive him, who had the right not to? And then I 
     took Rodney home with me for the next four or five days.
       ``I think this is what the fate of Creative Visions, 
     because the kids and young adults now saw me walk the talk 
     despite my personal pain. They saw I was willing to keep on 
     giving, no matter what it cost. And not only me. There was 
     another staff person whose son was shot and killed in a 
     street not far from our office. The kids could see that there 
     are people who work here that are in pain, but they keep on 
     going.'' Lest one label Abdul-Samad and his co-workers ``role 
     models,'' he is quick to correct the term: ``We don't use the 
     term `role model;' we use `goal model.' Too many times we put 
     our role models upon pedestals; we don't allow them to be 
     human, which hinders their giving. We think a `goal model' 
     allows someone to make mistakes, to learn from those 
     mistakes, and to grow. As goal models we `model' setting 
     goals, striving to reach those goals, and making those goals 
     a reality.''
       Certainly part of what makes Creative Visions work is its 
     peer counselors--some of whom are former gang members, drug 
     addicts, and dealers themselves. They are especially able to 
     form trusting relationship with young people who know they 
     have ``been there, done that.''
       Like many dedicated to a life of service, Abdul-Samad's 
     reward is not accolades. ``A reward is when a young street 
     person, whom everyone else had given up on, goes through our 
     program and then walks in the door one day and shows you 
     their diploma, or tells you they've gone back to school, or 
     shares

[[Page S11489]]

     the career path they've chose to pursue. Nothing is more 
     rewarding than to watch someone who is struggling and wearing 
     a look of despair suddenly transform. You can begin to see 
     hope in their eyes and the beginning of a smile.''
       There are many aspects of inner-city life that are not 
     pretty. Abdul-Samad and his co-workers come face to face with 
     often grim and gritty circumstances that most people would 
     not want to even hear about, much less confront. Teen 
     pregnancies, venereal diseases, drug overdoses, stabbings, 
     are all part of the realities Creative Visions' counselors 
     face each day. Abdul-Samad credits his relationship with God 
     with helping him get through his pain. He also copes through 
     the pen--often writing poetry at 3 a.m., which relaxes him 
     and had led to the release of his first book, A Deeper Truth/
     Relevations From the Soul.
       Abdul-Samad has spent most of his 53 years giving to 
     others. Even as a child he tended to wounded animals or fixed 
     broken bicycles and then gave them away to neighborhood kids. 
     By the time he was 18, he was aligned with an organization 
     that fed 300 children each morning--long before the school 
     system began offering free breakfasts. ``This was all during 
     the 1960s, a good time in which to have grown up because of 
     all the consciousness-raising going on--women's rights, civil 
     rights, human rights,'' says Abdul-Samad. ``Anyone young who 
     got caught up in the counter-culture movement at that time 
     couldn't help but identify with people who were struggling.''
       After eight years, the vision Ako Abdul-Samad conceived and 
     built is flourishing. Almost two dozen programs are now 
     operating through his center, from computer classes to 12-
     step meetings. Since its inception, Creative Visions has 
     attracted and helped more than 6,500 men, women, and at-risk 
     children and youth. Now calls are coming in from cities 
     around the United States--and other countries including 
     Mexico, the Netherlands, and Nigeria--also interested in 
     starting similar organizations.
       Abdul-Samad knows that many of the battles he undertakes 
     won't be won in his lifetime. But his philosophy is to plant 
     a seed, and he has planted many.

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