Madison’s Goodman Community Center continues its daily work serving pre-school children, teens, seniors and hungry people through its food pantry despite an onslaught of challenges from the federal government, the local economy and the criminal actions of a single individual.
Goodman Center serves thousands of people each year through its recently-expanded food pantry and hundreds of children per week with its after-school programming.
But heartache and wounds have abounded at the center recently, according to Goodman’s leadership team. Two weeks ago, the Dane County District Attorney’s office announced nine felony charges against a former member of Goodman’s finance office, 42-year-old Dewayne Powell.
Powell is charged with forgery and theft for actions dating back to 2021. He is alleged to have committed fraud using credit cards and using his position in Goodman’s financial department to write checks to himself from the organization. Authorities estimate Powell stole over $600,000. Powell is due in Dane County Circuit Court on Feb.27.
Goodman Center’s leader, Letesha Nelson, helped break open the case against Powell and worked with authorities to expose his alleged crimes. Nelson describes the events as “heartbreaking” but also hopes Powell receives the maximum penalties due him.
Yet Powell’s story is not the one that defines the Goodman Center or the work it does. His unique crimes do not begin to tell the story of what goes on at the center on a daily basis.
“The 3-year-olds don’t care. They need what they need right now,” said Florence Edwards-Miller, Goodman’s communications director.
Daily programming
The center is abuzz even during mid-afternoon hours on a dreary February day. Dozens of seniors have just finished lunch provided by the center and have now retired into a cozy community room to play Bingo.
“You know how Bingo gets,” laughs Nelson as she walks by. “It definitely gets spicy.”
Other seniors relax in a small library called the “secret room” with books, comfy chairs and a wall of DVDs. A desktop computer designed to teach older adults how to navigate the internet sits noticeably unused.
Goodman Center provides several programs for seniors. Edwards-Miller estimates they serve about 950 seniors annually.
Seniors are able to purchase healthy lunches served at the center for less than $5. The center is also a hub for local Meals on Wheels, a national program which has come under assault from the Trump Administration.
A freeze in federal funding could potentially impact the Meals on Wheels program.
“We have volunteers that actually come in and take meals in vans or their own vehicles and drop it off at other community centers or people’s homes,” Nelson said.
Community space for seniors is utilized most during winter months, Nelson said. But during warmer months the center has outdoor spaces seniors enjoy sitting in, as well as spaces for sports such as volleyball.
Lining the halls of Goodman Center’s Iron Works building is artwork done by local artists.
“We do a featured artist on the wall for a month at a time, sometimes two, depending on what’s going on,” Nelson said. “People come here a lot during the week to see who the featured artist is and go through the gallery.”
At the end of an artwork-adorned hallway in the Iron Works building is space for Goodman’s early childhood programming. Goodman provides daily early childhood programming for kids ranging from 3 years old to fifth grade.
“It’s an interesting mix of noises,” Nelson says about walking the halls during the day. “You hear laughter, you hear crying, fussing, you hear the teacher singing songs. You try to tune your ear into one or the other at all times.”
The center also has an after-school program for middle school and high school students. Nelson said the middle school program has expanded rapidly over the past year. The high school program includes helping older kids get a GED.
All of the programs depend on the dedication of staff and volunteers, but also rely on some federal funding. It remains unclear what the scope of any federal funding freeze would be or what impact it would have on local organizations such as Goodman Center.
“We can’t let that stop us from doing anything,” Nelson said. “And the worry of it is its own work, and we don’t have time to worry. We just got to keep doing what we’re doing.”
The same is true of insidious rumors and media reports of ICE raids in schools.
“We’re working through figuring all of that out as well,” Nelson says of Goodman’s policies. “What we’ve been trying to do is arm our participants and community members with information.”
(Photo: Laura Zastrow Photography)
Record need
Most of the action in the afternoon hours takes place at Goodman Center’s food pantry.
The food pantry has expanded its space over the past year as food costs have increased and is in demand more than any other Goodman program.
In January, Madison schools and many businesses closed down due to extreme cold. The next day, Goodman saw a record number of people utilize the pantry.
“It was 143 families in a single day,” Edwards-Miller said. “It’s intense. There’s more demand than ever.”
The same was true over the 2024 Thanksgiving holiday when Goodman Center gave away 4,000 meal baskets, a goal the center has had for several years.
What made the Thanksgiving giveaway so unique in 2024 was that it sold out in a single day with all 4,000 meal baskets spoken for as soon as registration opened.
For contrast, 2,400 people signed up on the first day of registration in 2021. That number has risen steadily over the past 3 years.
Daily grocery shopping at the center is on the rise as well, according to Nelson, who credits word of mouth for the uptick.
“We’ve tripled the amount of people we serve in our food pantry since I started,” Nelson said.
“My heart is broken”
Letesha Nelson’s office is full of words. Every wall has a quote or a thought-provoking word for the day. “Trust” is prominently featured in various forms in her office. Quotes from Gandhi are in visible places.
But no words describe Nelson’s reaction when asked how Powell’s alleged crimes have personally affected her.
Nelson broke down in tears.
“The hurt I have is just some days excruciating,” Nelson said. “I can’t tell you all the ways my heart is broken.”
Nelson had spent the afternoon leading this Madison365 reporter on a tour of all things Goodman Center. Every question had been answered and each of Goodman’s programs intricately described.
Now, though, there was nothing to do but feel the raw emotion, betrayal and hurt caused by the alleged criminal actions of a trusted individual.
“It was a breach in trust from the standpoint that what Goodman does every day for people out there and those that come into our building, you broke their trust,” Nelson said. “And we all have to pay for what you did in certain ways.”
Both Nelson and Edwards-Miller pointed out that support for the center during this period has been overwhelmingly positive.
But that hasn’t stopped some from – during this period of national assault on diversity, equity and inclusion – using the situation to paint a picture of Nelson as a Black woman leader.
“I’m coming from the lens of being a Black woman running an organization that was run by a white woman for 31 years and I think that does peek its head out a lot,” Nelson said. “But I love this place. I still struggle to see the support around me as not just a Black leader, but a female Black leader in Madison, that I feel I deserve.
“I didn’t do what he did,” Nelson continued.
About a year ago, Nelson began working with Goodman’s staff on implementing a culture of safety around the building. The old adage of “If you see something, say something” was thrown around. Nelson’s goal was for staff to feel safe psychologically as much as physically.
One particular staff member felt emboldened by Nelson’s provision of a safe space. The staff person had found some of the checks Powell allegedly wrote to himself. The staff member went to human resources with the information, and HR then contacted Nelson.
Nelson’s first step was to tell her board chair about the situation. Nelson then embarked on a mission to uncover what was going on. It was more difficult and intricate than she ever imagined.
Nelson did not have access to the financial records and systems that Powell allegedly used to execute his schemes. She worked with HR and others to gain as much access as she could and begin peeling back the layers of Powell’s deceptions.
After a week of investigating on their own, Goodman Center had enough information to contact local authorities, who launched a criminal investigation in June.
Eventually, the Dane County District Attorney’s office was able to announce nine felony charges against Powell.
During the investigation, Goodman Center brought in a PR firm and conducted a forensic audit. Goodman Center also conducted an audit of its grant funding to make sure that none of those funds had been defrauded.
“There’s not one person who gave even $5 for a program where the funds did not go directly to the kids or the seniors,” Florence Edwards-Miller said. “Not one dollar of grant money was misused, but we weren’t able to say that until just now.”
While cooperating with the police, Goodman’s leaders were forced to keep even donors and board members in the dark about Powell’s alleged crimes because nothing would be worse in their minds than unintentionally compromising the criminal investigation.
Now, with Powell charged, the center is confident that what transpired was the action of Powell alone and not part of a larger issue within the center.
What remains to be done is healing and getting back on track with the full support of the community.
“He should pay according to whatever the law says that he should pay,” Nelson said of Powell’s charges.
“You cannot repay what you took, though,” Nelson said. “It’s about more than the money and he can never repay that.”
