Voices of Jubilee

Voices of Jubilee

A North Texas Giving Day Podcast Series

This #NorthTexasGivingDay we are elevating the voices of our Jubilee neighbors to share stories of resilience, compassion, and hope! Inspired by what you heard 🎧? Head on over to www.NorthTexasGivingDay.org/JubileePark to learn more and make your donation early. #FindYourPassion and #GiveWithPurpose today!

YES, I WANT TO HELP!

A few minutes can change your perspective forever. Listen to our previews now:

Want to know more? Listen to full episodes of Voices of Jubilee below.

Inspired by what you heard?

To support Jubilee’s wraparound programs, visit www.NorthTexasGivingDay.org/JubileePark.

$5,000 could…

complete needed repairs s to make a home wheelchair-accessible.

$1,200 could…

provide fitness classes for the entire community for one month.

$500 could…

provide emergency financial aid for one family in crisis.

$100 could…

provide reading and math curriculum for one student.

Questions?

We'd love to hear from you.  Please contact Christian Staley, Chief Advancement Officer, at cstaley@jubileecenter.org.

Faces of Jubilee: Diana's Story

Diana Orellana at Community Center groundbreaking

When Diana left Jubilee 20 years after she had first walked through its doors, she felt ready to take on the world. Raised by a single father who worked overtime to provide for his children, Diana relied on Jubilee to learn what it meant to be a woman. "They say it takes a village, and Jubilee was my village."

Walking around Jubilee’s sprawling campus, Diana is stunned. In the mid-2000’s when Diana left Jubilee, programming was housed in two small Habitat for Humanity houses. Today, they have been replaced by a new, sun-filled community center that houses four classrooms, a computer lab, a library, a commercial kitchen, and several offices. One original Habitat for Humanity house still stands and hosts Jubilee’s Teen Program. “Jubilee was our safe place. We would ask each other, ‘are you going to las casitas, the little houses’ today?”

Unshakeably resilient, Diana recounts the hardships she faced growing up but is quick to point out her blessings, too. “We might have not had a Christmas tree, but we had presents from Jubilee.  I may not have had a mother, but Jubilee was there for me.”

Diana admits that growing up without a mother was one of the greatest difficulties she would face in her lifetime. “A little girl needs their mother,” Diana tearfully says. “It can be scary and embarrassing to not know what is happening [to your body]. Mrs. Walker taught me what it meant to be a woman, but every woman I met at Jubilee was important to my growing up.” 

Early adult education class at Jubilee

Jubilee is where Diana learned how to carry herself with confidence. The positivity and encouragement she received from her Jubilee Family made her believe her dreams were possible. As a young adult, she attended resume classes, mock interviews, and "Dress for Success" workshops where she learned the importance of hard work and professionalism. 

When she applied for her first job out of high school, she put all of those hard-earned skills to the test. "I walked into Ross in a suit and with a resume," Diana laughs. She got the job. Eventually, a regular customer noticed Diana’s professionalism and commendable faultless service. The woman invited Diana for an interview at the local bank and extended a job offer for an entry-level position. After working her way up, Diana is now a Branch Manager!

Now Diana wants to give back to her community, and to the place that once meant everything to her. "One thing that people get wrong is that no one from my neighborhood will be [anything]-- that's not true. Change is possible, and it's already happening."

Star Student: Maribel's Story

"If a baby cries, we know they need help. When a child acts up, that's what they're doing-- they're crying for us to pay attention." When Jubilee's S3 (Specialized Student Support) Coordinator Ranita Dement met Maribel, she saw a crying child where others had seen a troublemaker.

A student participates in guided reading at Jubilee

Maribel was what some teachers might consider "difficult;” in one moment she was sweet and helpful and in the next, irate. Her behavior seemed to escalate when she had to sit down for a test or was asked to read aloud. Maribel was extremely task-avoidant, disrupting the class with jokes and antics, or insisting she needed to use the restroom at the moment she was called upon. Because Maribel had been attending Jubilee’s out-of-school-time program for two years, the afterschool teachers had noted that her behavioral problems had started when she entered the third grade, flagging her for evaluation by the S3 team.

Third grade is one of the most pivotal years in a student’s academic life, Ranita explains. It is the year that students transition from learning to read to reading to learn, and the jump in difficulty means that students with learning disabilities come to realize they are different from their peers, causing inner turmoil and confusion. 

Because Maribel’s behavioral problems had so suddenly presented, Ranita knew the tantrums were likely a cover. After testing Maribel for dyslexia, it became clear that she had been using bad behavior to distract from the overwhelming confusion and frustration she felt every time she opened a book.

Jubilee OST students using Voyager, a reading and math intervention curriculum

Although Maribel’s two brothers had already been diagnosed as dyslexic by DISD, somehow Maribel slipped through the cracks. Luckily, Jubilee’s part-time S3 Interventionists also work in DISD schools as Dyslexia Interventionists and were able to expedite the process of receiving 504 accommodations. As part of the accommodation assessment, Maribel also received the Behavior Assessment System for Children (BASC) and was referred to a pediatrician where she was diagnosed with ADHD Inattentive Type. Having the S3 program to advocate for Maribel meant that she not only received specialized support to help her thrive in the classroom, but also the mental health help she long needed.

The S3 Team focused on equipping Maribel with the skills she needed to engage in the classroom, including word attack strategies, using context clues, and developing abstract thinking. Unlike general education, Ranita explains, S3 interventions are highly tailored and move at the individual student’s pace: “A concept that will be covered in one day in general education, we might spend a week on. We don't stop until they can teach it to me.”

Jubilee afterschool students enjoying the Park at Jubilee

The S3 interventions were only thirty minutes long per day, but the individualized attention and benchmark-setting encouraged Maribel to become invested in her own progress. Because Maribel read at such a slow pace, she would often forget what she had read by the time she had moved to the next sentence. By giving her the tools she needed to break down words, she was able to increase words read per minute and began to understand the stories she was reading! Maribel used to avoid reading out loud at all costs. Ranita knew they had turned a real corner when Maribel bounded into the classroom one day and told her she wanted to pick out a story to read. 

Maribel entered the S3 program reading well below grade level. Now, Maribel is making incredible strides and we have seen over a 200% increase in her reading skills score! The biggest change? "She’s always been strong, but strong in the sense of guarded, and now it’s strong in the sense of confident and brave."

Safety at Jubilee: A Model for Community Policing

When a nightclub opened just down the street, fighting and the sound of gunshots regularly rang out in the night air. Rattled by the sudden uptick in crime, our Jubilee neighbors teamed up with Jubilee's DPD substation officers and Jubilee staff to strategize how to respond. It would prove to be a difficult task, but our Jubilee residents had succeeded in reducing their neighborhood’s crime rate by 74% since 1997 and refused to surrender the peace they had fought so hard for.

The first person they turned to was Dale Rettman, Jubilee Park’s own Facilities Manager. Dale has worked with our residents for years to keep the community safe and was ready to fight alongside his neighbors to reclaim their neighborhood.

What happened next was a shining example of Jubilee's exemplary partnership with the Dallas Police Department. Community members and local business owners attended Crime Watch meetings to collaborate with DPD and Jubilee on a multi-pronged effort to find a resolution. They brought code violations to the city, but the nightclub evaded justice time and again and violent crime continued. Finally, the community met with Councilman Adam Bazaldua who told the Jubilee residents that they could try and shut down the nightclub by collecting signatures from local businesses and residents. But there was a catch-- the next City Council meeting was only three days away.

In the next 72 hours, residents and Jubilee staff sprang into action to canvas the 62-block neighborhood in a coordinated awareness campaign to gather signatures in support of a crackdown. By the third day, they had collected 137 signatures from residents, businesses, and employees in the area. After weeks of organizing, the nightclub finally closed its doors for good. The neighborhood had won!

A true community policing model, Jubilee officers are tasked primarily with building trust between DPD and marginalized communities. Several officers live in the community, help reach immobile seniors, and even lead Jubilee Park's Boy Scouts troops!

The Golden Years

Growing old should be the golden chapter in one’s life, but for seniors living in Southeast Dallas, aging only earns further hardship. In Jubilee Park, 30% of seniors live below the poverty line-- only $12,261 per year for an individual over 65. This means that senior citizens struggle to afford basic necessities like food, medical care, and quality housing. 

When bcWORKSHOP and Jubilee Park & Community Center surveyed the neighborhood’s landscape in 2008 in a series of community meetings, neighbors of all ages advocated for the need for senior housing. “We have a lot of seniors renting homes in bad shape,” one resident reported. “Landlords haven’t taken care of their properties.” 

That much was clear to the Jubilee Team. They had witnessed firsthand seniors living in homes with porches caving in, boarded up windows, and no running water. Just a few years ago, they had even helped relocate a senior whose house had a tree growing through the middle of the living room. Many of Jubilee’s elders had lived in the neighborhood for decades, and some for generations. Ensuring that they could age in place and with dignity was just a small repayment for the years of wisdom, love, and work they had poured into the community to make Jubilee Park better. 

Gurley Place: Senior Housing By Seniors, For Seniors

Photo credit bcWORKSHOP

Through a series of community input sessions in 2011, seniors in the community guided the design of what would become Gurley Place, a 24-unit housing complex adjacent to the Park at Jubilee. Individual balconies and a shared parklet allow for easy access to the outdoors, while a walking path and picnic tables promote a sense of community. Rent-capped at $475 a month, seniors at Jubilee are able to enjoy a safe place to live and receive services from Jubilee like senior lunches twice weekly and enrichment activities. Most importantly, Gurley Place’s tie to Jubilee means that Gurley Place seniors can rest easy knowing that, no matter what, the Jubilee Family is there for them.

Mr. Harris’s Story

Mr. Harris peeked out of his blinds. He needed to leave his apartment for some groceries, but he was scared. Because he was a senior citizen, he had been targeted by young men in his building, and things had escalated from taunts to being pushed over on his walks. He knew he had to move, and soon. The landlord's neglect of the building was bad enough, but the torment was becoming too much to bear.

When Jubilee called to ask Mr. Harris if he would like to move into Gurley Place, Jubilee's low-cost senior housing complex, he was elated. He had been attending senior lunch-n-learns at Jubilee and had always taken note of Jubilee's 24 cheerful homes along Gurley Avenue, especially lately, as spring flowers had begun to bloom in the flower pots on the doorsteps.

Within days, Mr. Harris arrived at Gurley Place, suitcase in hand. He walked up to his unit and unlocked the door. Finally, he was home.

The Golden Years at Jubilee

Gurley Place is only one small part of senior services at Jubilee. Jubilee’s senior housing repair program, piloted in 2019, promotes aging in place by offering free-of-cost home repairs.

In addition to housing, Jubilee offers complete wraparound services ranging from food assistance, to exercise classes, to enrichment activities like senior parties and field trips. By weaving in education in all that we do, Jubilee strives to spark curiosity and inspire a culture of achievement in every area of life, no matter what age. To empower Southeast Dallas seniors to dream and thrive this North Texas Giving Day, visit NorthTexasGivingDay.org/JubileePark. 

Jubilee Breaks Ground on the Jubilee Clinic

After months of keeping such a monumental project under wraps, on Thursday, May 27, Jubilee broke ground on the Jubilee Clinic. This new health venture, in partnership with Parkland and Jewish Family Service, will provide primary healthcare and wrap-around health and wellness resources on the same campus our community has come to know and trust for education, housing, childcare, and more.

Jubilee Clinic Ground Braking- Watch Now!

At the ground breaking, President and CEO of Parkland, Dr. Cerise, shared his enthusiasm for the project, noting that the partnership would be the first of its kind for Parkland.

Jubilee board chair Tiffany Davis spoke to Jubilee’s historic role in the community and the trust the organization has built with its neighbors, while President and CEO Marissa Castro Mikoy addressed the health inequities the Jubilee Park neighborhood faces, and her vision for the future of the Jubilee Clinic:

“You asked for access to the most basic resources in the face of overwhelming odds, and we heard you, and we’re here for you. All of us. Jubilee, Parkland, JFS, our contractors, our donors, our staff, our friends; we’re here, side-by-side with you. This is your clinic. The ability to lead a healthy, happy, and full life is a right, and it is our vision that the Jubilee Clinic brings the health resources that you need not just to survive, but to thrive. From our youngest child to our oldest neighbor, the Jubilee Clinic will serve as a medical home for all ages.”

Public officials Adam Medrano and Judge Clay Jenkins spoke to the impact Jubilee has had in the Southeast Dallas community and the importance of healthcare access in building a more equitable Dallas. “Today we’re not only breaking ground,” Jenkins said, “we’re breaking barriers.”

In imagining the generational impact the Jubilee Clinic will have in extending and improving the lives of Southeast Dallas families, Judge Clay Jenkins shared how healthcare access had affected his own family; “When I was seven years old, I watched my father suffer a fatal heart attack in front of me in a park in Oak Cliff. A week later, his brother had access to healthcare and went to the doctor and found out he had the same congenital heart defect. That man lived an additional forty-two years, long enough to meet his great-great-grandchildren. That is the power of healthcare for people that don’t have it.”

In attendance were foundational donors, project contractors, developers and architects, stakeholders, and public officials with a vested interest in the Jubilee Clinic including councilmember Adam Bazaldua, President & CEO of Parkland Foundation Michael Horne, Jewish Family Service CEO Cathy Barker, EVP of Design and Construction of KDC Mike Rosamond, President & CEO of Rogers-O’Brien Justin McAfee, Founder of the Addy Foundation Bill Addy, Chairman of the Myers Foundation Mike Myers, Jubilee Park DPD Substation Sergeant Bridget Wilson-Jones, DPD Lieutenant Allan Majusta, DPD Deputy Chief Israel Herrera, and DPD Lieutenant Paul Thai.

The Jubilee Clinic will seek not only to close the gap in healthcare access by providing pediatric to geriatric primary care through Parkland, but will aim to promote good health for life by providing mental health counseling through Jewish Family Service, and a broad range of wellness programming like cooking classes, health seminars, athletics programs, and nutrition support through Jubilee. In addressing the full range of social health determinants, the Jubilee Clinic will help overcome health injustices in Southeast Dallas, improving the lives of our most vulnerable by ensuring all of our Dallas neighbors have access to the resources they need and deserve.

To watch the full groundbreaking, click here. To learn more about the Jubilee Clinic and to contribute, click here. Interested in speaking with someone about the project? Email Jubilee’s Chief Advancement Officer Haley Coates-Huseman at hcoates@jubileecenter.org.

All Hands On Deck: Volunteering at Jubilee

At Jubilee, we are proudly powered by volunteers. As a team of only 22 serving over 2,000 individuals annually, Jubilee relies on the hard work, commitment, and compassion of our volunteers and service leaders to reach our Jubilee families. From helping out in our classrooms to leading BINGO nights for our seniors, volunteers contribute to all programs, events, and services at Jubilee.

Here are just a few ways our volunteers knocked it out of the park this spring:

STEM Kits for our Jubilee Kids!

When Mihit Garlanka found out he had received a grant from Hershey to fund a special Boy Scouts of America service-learning project, he was excited. A proponent of STEM education, Mihit already had his project in mind: he was going to make STEM kits for elementary students to share his love for science with other kids!

After hearing about Jubilee’s afterschool program from his troop leader, Mihit knew that his project would be put to good use at Jubilee. The 150 STEM kits included activities like creating sundials, making skittles rainbow, and crafting cellphone stands.

Mother’s Day at Jubilee

The past year was tough for our Jubilee moms; between juggling multiple jobs, caring for their children, and becoming impromptu teachers when school went online, making time for selfcare was simply impossible. This Mother’s Day we knew it was more important than ever to make our mothers feel extra-special.

With the help of our partners, Jubilee hosted a drive-thru Mother’s Day event focused on self-care and love. Vizient provided 365 gift bags full of treats like nail polish, chocolates, face masks, and hygiene products, while the Pi Beta Phi chapter of SMU and the Pi Beta Phi Alumni Club of Dallas provided 200 brand-new books in Spanish and in English. Being recognized and appreciated for all they do as mothers by our Jubilee Family meant so much to our moms.

Snack Packs for Summer

Ensuring that our students have access to the fuel they need to learn and grow is a foundational part of summer camp at Jubilee. To help meet that need, NCL stepped up to provide snack bags to supplement meals our students receive at camp. Under the leadership of Bitsy Hudnall, NCL assembled an incredible 1,000 snack bags for summer!

The bags contained healthy treats like water, granola bars, and fruit snacks. These donations mean that we will have enough snack bags to provide every camper with a healthy treat every day of camp.

When you volunteer at Jubilee, you are helping build a bridge between our neighbors’ dreams and the resources they need to achieve them. To inquire about current volunteer opportunities, please email volunteer@jubileecenter.org.

Introducing the Jubilee Clinic: A Conversation With Alejandra Saldaña

During Jubilee’s recent strategic planning process in 2018, they wanted to ensure their next big moves were community-led, so they posed the question to their neighbors: What do you want to see in your neighborhood? Overwhelmingly, surveyed residents responded that a healthcare clinic would be one of the most impactful service in improving their lives.

Now, over a year into the pandemic, the case for a clinic is clearer than ever as our current crisis exposed how the inequities that have been allowed to persist in our city have created a dire health environment for our most vulnerable. That is why Jubilee is excited to announce the Jubilee Clinic-- a novel partnership between Jubilee Park and Community Center and Parkland that will bring quality, accessible healthcare to so many in Southeast Dallas.

Last week, we sat down with Jubilee’s Health and Wellness Manager, Alejandra Saldaña, to talk about health in Southeast Dallas and how the Jubilee Clinic will help address the biggest challenges in achieving community health for her neighbors in Jubilee Park.

Haley Coates-Huseman, CAO: Tell us a little bit about your story.

Alejandra Saldaña, Health and Wellness Manager: I was born and raised in Southeast Dallas and actually grew up attending Jubilee’s afterschool programs. I’ve always been interested in health, so when I went to college at Syracuse University I majored in Health and Exercise Science with a coaching minor.

HC: Can you explain your current role at Jubilee?

AS: I’m tasked with all things related to our Health pillar at Jubilee. My vision is to expand health education classes and healthcare access to prevent chronic diseases. I am especially cognizant of prevention because of how chronic disease complicates other illnesses like COVID.

HC: Can you tell us about the need for healthcare and health resources in the Jubilee Park neighborhood?

AS: There very much is a need. I can’t count the number of times my mom and I stood outside the health clinic early in the morning in hopes of being seen for something most people can just make an appointment for. I grew up thinking this was normal because everyone around me was doing the same thing, but through working at Jubilee I realized this was not what everyone experienced.

I remember working at Jubilee, one of my clients, let’s call her Ms. Doris, came to me for help when she was having a really hard time accessing healthcare. She started telling me about how she was having intense stomach pain for a month and was not able to be seen by a provider. Because she was working full-time and basically raising her two children alone, she had avoided going to the doctor because it was too big a financial burden to take off work and take the hour trip to the clinic. She ignored the pain until it became unbearable so she took that trip to the clinic only to be turned away and scheduled for an appointment a month out. Because of the amount of pain she was in that wasn’t an option for her, so she returned at dawn again to try and get seen. As I was thinking about Ms. Doris I began thinking of my own experience and I realized you could do everything “right” and still find yourself unable to break free from your circumstances. I graduated. I have a job. I have insurance. But I am still in that line at 6 in the morning, looking over my shoulder because it’s dark outside and unsafe. It sparked that realization for me that this baseline of lacking [basic healthcare] access is not normal, and it’s not okay.

I began researching basic inequities in healthcare and learned that between our community and just a mile away in Lakewood the life expectancy difference is 20 years. That shocking number is the reason why I’m here.

HC: Can you give us a “tour” of the Jubilee Clinic?

AS: The Jubilee Clinic will be a 15,000 SF facility. When you walk in on the first floor, you’ll be greeted by a culturally competent receptionist who will help connect you with the resources that are on-site. You will also find the primary healthcare clinic that will provide pediatric through geriatric care through Parkland. As you walk upstairs to the second level, you will see a large room where we will be offering things like family cooking classes, meditation, and more that will be run through Jubilee, as well as Jewish Family Service mental health counseling offices.

HC: Why is a health clinic so important to our community?

AS: It’s important to provide that point of access for our community. Current clinics in the area are difficult to get to, and transportation is a big barrier. The client to provider ratio [in Southeast Dallas] is overwhelmed, so providers do not have the time or the resources to properly care for our neighbors.

The Jubilee Clinic will offer a level of holistic care that does not exist, providing both clinical care and health and wellness services like nutrition classes, exercise classes, etcetera, to make sure we are addressing every aspect of what it means to lead a healthy, quality life. It’s going to be so huge in making that generational shift.

We want to provide those services to tackle one, disease prevention and two, navigating the healthcare system. The idea is to provide those services to break the cycle of health inequity for our neighborhood. We want to not just prolong life, but make it a well-lived life.

To find out more about the Jubilee Clinic, click here.

April In Review

It’s not quite May but the staff is already busy with springtime events and preparing for the coming summer. Although this spring was filled with unanticipated challenges as the Jubilee Team worked overtime to help families recover from the pandemic and the winter storm, the past few months have also been filled with many blessings. Here are just a few highlights from April:

Easter at Jubilee

When Pastor Hannah Buchanan of Highland Park United Methodist Church approached Jubilee about creating a volunteer project for HPUMC’s Day of Service, the idea was to make just a few Easter baskets for Jubilee’s afterschool students. But after hearing more about Jubilee’s work and how Winter Storm Uri had recently devastated the resilient neighborhood, Hannah had a new proposal; “Let’s blow this up!”

The congregation at HPUMC wanted to not only provide Easter baskets for every child in the community, but ensure that families could celebrate Easter worry-free by providing a full grocery bag of pantry items, a bag of produce, and a box of perishables. With a new goal of 300 bags and boxes of food and 350 Easter baskets, the team went straight to work. HPUMC’s Day of Service was only a few days away, and without the usual egg hunt in the park, the team knew it was critical that this event came together in time.

Working through the morning, volunteers stuffed the brightly-colored Easter baskets with candy and goodies, and assembled grocery bags with pantry staples like peanut butter, canned chicken, and vegetables. By the time the community arrived, spirits were high as volunteers donned bunny ears and waved happily at cars. Over the course of only two hours, Jubilee and HPUMC served over 900 individuals from 200 families! 

Babies and Blooms: Springtime at Head Start

This March, Jubilee’s Early Head Start and daycare program, Jeanie’s Place, welcomed eight new mothers. Mothers received new parent education, resources, and support during their pregnancy, as well as guaranteed spring enrollment in Early Head Start for their infants. Now that April has arrived, the baby room at Jeanie’s Place is abuzz with the gurgles and laughs of Jubilee’s newest residents!

When our friends at St. Mark’s heard that Jeanie’s Place was accepting a new class of infants, they wanted to ensure that our Jubilee children were properly welcomed into the world. Teacher Jorge Correra came together with his students to gather bottles, diapers, pacifiers, clothes, blankets and more to create eight newborn baskets just in time for Easter!

2021 Health and Prevention Expo

Last April, Jubilee made the difficult decision to cancel the Health and Prevention Expo. Only days into Dallas’s stay-at-home order, the team knew that cancelling the beloved community event was necessary to keep our neighbors safe. Now, a year later, we are thrilled to revive our annual health event hosted in partnership with United Way and East Dallas Church of Christ!

Under the leadership of Health and Wellness Manager Alejandra Saldaña, Jubilee was able to pivot to a drive-thru model for the Health Expo. Although our event looked a little different than in years past, our volunteers kept the festive spirit alive, dancing to DJ Astronaut’s music, holding up handmade signs, and waving energetically to passing cars. Nearly 700 community members received  board games and stuffed animals for the kids, boxes of perishables, and bags of resources with information about how to access healthcare.

Spring is a special time at Jubilee as our neighbors celebrate the end of winter and anticipate the excitement of summer. We cannot thank our Jubilee Family enough for helping make spring a special time at Jubilee. For more information about how to get involved, visit jubileecenter.org/volunteer. 

Staff Spotlight: Charnese Evans, Education Manager

When Charnese Evans was offered the Education Manager position at Jubilee, she was nervous and excited. Although she had served as a lifelong child advocate through her work in program delivery and social work for other agencies, her background was not in education. Encouraged to apply by friend and former Chief Program Officer Marjorie Murat after successfully running her pilot STEM program, Be a Genius Girl, at Jubilee’s summer camp, Charnese recalls telling Marjorie “But I’m not a teacher!” What Charnese did have was a unique perspective in child welfare, an instinct for programs, and a heart for Dallas’s underserved. 

In November 2019, Charnese hit the ground running as Jubilee’s new Education Manager. She had the right team and a clear vision for education programming at Jubilee, but when the COVID-19 pandemic hit she knew she would have to adapt quickly to ensure her students weren’t left behind. Quickly pivoting such a large program would be a tall order, but as a practitioner of trauma-informed care, Charnese understood how high the stakes really were. 

“This pandemic was a trauma for our kids,” Charnese explains. Her background and focus on child welfare and advocacy meant that a recognition of and sensitivity to trauma was baked into the education program. A cornerstone of trauma-informed care is the creation of strong, connected relationships to promote a sense of stability. “It was a priority to make sure that kids are connected to caring adults. Being virtual made that harder.”

Only a few months into her new job, Charnese executed a major shift in education programming when she realized that the learning software they had been using was not promoting connection between students and teachers and was not conducive to the new virtual program model. She knew her students were not receiving the care they needed, and mid-program, she made the decision to switch to a hands-on learning software.

“Because the new curriculum is more involved [for instructors], instructors have that one-on-one and can identify challenges, where kids are, and tailor the child’s experience to them.”

As the era of virtual programming draws to a close and Charnese begins preparing for in-person summer camp, her focus remains unwaveringly on helping change the trajectory of people’s lives in Southeast Dallas through education. She envisions afterschool at Jubilee as a “door opener,” where students receive the resources they need to thrive. Charnese strives to foster leaders in afterschool, with the hope that one day they might return to drive change in their community, too.

“Our kids need resources and access,” Charnese says. “I want people to understand that by not investing in Southeast Dallas, we are all missing out. These kids are contributors. They have value. They have a right to thrive. They have talent. They have drive, dreams, and ability, but they need opportunities. They need chances.”