West Orange Dream Center welcomes new executive director

Julia Martinez spent the past 10 years in the luxury automotive industry, praying for an opportunity to return to faith-based, nonprofit work. 

In January, her prayers were answered.

Martinez joined the West Orange Dream Center as its new executive director Monday, Jan. 5. She brings more than 20 years of experience carrying out missions in the Dominican Republic before she settled in the United States to attain financial stability and put her two children through college. 

“I just fell into the automotive industry,” Martinez said. “But the whole time I was there, I was really just praying, ‘I wish I could go back and do what I love.’”

In her 20 years of mission work, 16 were spent in La Vega, Dominican Republic. There, she watched children grow into young adults who still text her to this day. 

“Now they’re married, got jobs and it’s just good to see,” Martinez said.

Martinez said she helped run camps, retreats and weekly one-on-one sessions to teach the kids character and biblical concepts. She also provided school supplies and, during Christmastime, brought toys for the families. 

“I’m here to care about your life and how you see life,” Martinez told the children in La Vega. “There’s a way to look at life that is different.”

Now, Martinez hopes to bring that same enthusiasm to the executive director position at the West Orange Dream Center, which opened in 2021 in Winter Garden.

The West Orange Dream Center provides the community with after-school programs and resources such as food, education and employment support — all while instilling biblical principles.

Compared to when she was working alongside children in the Dominican Republic, she sees her new job as a more managerial role, making sure she puts people in the right position to succeed. 

“I would love to be the one in the neighborhood, creating little classes and talking to little girls, but I think my job is to find people that want to do that and back them and give them a place to do it,” Martinez said. 

Martinez, who worked as a business development manager in the automotive industry, said she applies leadership methods learned from being a mother and her faith. 

“I am a Christian first, and my faith affects everything I do,” Martinez said. “I would hire not because you knew the skill; I would hire a person.”

Martinez said she sees Winter Garden as a diverse community experiencing significant growth but also with areas of need similar to those she saw in La Vega. To better support the center, Martinez said she will need to reach out to the “players” in the area. 

“We’re all players, but we’re on the same team,” Martinez said. “The businessmen, the religious organizations and the government. So I’m talking to all of them. How can we be a good neighbor?”

From speaking with the president of Publix about potential backing to reaching out to government officials to help residents learn how to contact the Social Security Administration, Martinez said she’s contacting each section of the community to have the dream center serve as an “axis point.”

Learning from her time in La Vega, Martinez said she now knows developing strong relationships takes time. 

“Let me tell you, the kids were rough at first. I mean, I’d get bit, I’d get hit, I’d get everything,” Martinez said. “And when I had to leave, it was just horrible, right? And (the kids) are like, ‘How can you leave?’”

She learned the power of one-on-one, intimate conversations. Early in her career, she said she would be “too fast” at establishing strong relationships. Now, she’s open to a slower approach, such as meeting with five people for coffee once per week for a couple of months to “just get to know them and their life and not ask them for anything.”

Looking into establishing new programs, the ones that pique Martinez’s interest the most, she said, are those that help older teens and young adults in the community learn job skills. She wants to introduce them to trades. 

Still in the early stages, the West Orange Dream Center is developing a program that offers participants the chance to learn skills through virtual reality, Martinez said. By wearing a VR headset, a user could simulate completing a job, such as a technician, she said. 

But ultimately, Martinez said she wants to make sure older teens and young adults are aware of their options outside of just enrolling in college.

In terms of the challenges moving forward, Martinez said building trust would take time. 

Her first time out in Winter Garden with the center yielded inspiring results.

Martinez was handing out supplies to people already involved in the center when a lady walked up from the street. Martinez asked for her name and had a conversation. After wrapping up and getting in the car to leave, Martinez’s coworker from the neighborhood told her she was surprised the lady had given her real name — something she noted was a rarity, Martinez said. 

“I didn’t have an agenda,” Martinez said. “I was just being friendly.”