Harvest Academy recently chose to relocate to Des Moines so it could expand its services. It’s a community-living program that works with individuals to overcome behavioral challenges that lead to addiction or homelessness.
Derek Johnson, chief operations officer at Harvest Academy, said their current location can only house about 20 people.
“We are relocating up here into Des Moines where we will be able to serve. Our first two houses, we’re going to be able to serve up to 50 men,” Johnson said.
The new location will include more residential housing, a community center and workforce training. Johnson said they hope to eventually expand to serve women, too.
Participants of the program, called “students,” live on the Harvest campus while staff work with them to develop better habits and life skills.
Johnson was struggling with addiction when he joined a similar program. Now a leader at Harvest Academy, he said the program takes a different approach.
“There are a handful of these programs throughout the country, and they’re very successful programs,” Johnson explained. “But the thing is, with these programs you have to have people with lived experience to be able to run them.”
All the staff members at Harvest are previously incarcerated men who graduated from the program.
Johnson also pointed to a recent analysis by the Legislative Services Agency, which showed that Iowa would need to build three new prisons to keep up with capacity demands.
“We know that that model and that system doesn’t work. People don’t leave prison better humans and better individuals. So, our goal is like, hey, send them to Harvest Academy, let us take them for a little bit, let us try and help them.”
He said Harvest Academy is meant to be an alternative to jail. He said the program focuses on addressing the root cause of behavioral challenges by building up core habits like getting up on time, making breakfast and showing up for the community. Johnson added that similar programs often run 30-90 days, but their program is two years.
“It’s very basic life skills, and our idea is if you do that — and you do it around a community that supports you in becoming a better version of yourself — if you do that every day for two years what happens is, it just becomes who you are,” Johnson said. “You start to become an honest person. You start to become a person of accountability and integrity.”
The first phase of construction for the new campus in Des Moines is expected to be completed in spring of 2027. Phase 1 will include two residential houses, with about 20 residential houses expected to be added.
