As we look back on the previous year, we are confronted with how difficult and unprecedented 2020 truly was. Flipping through albums, we are met with masked faces, but smiling eyes. When we walk through the halls of our community center, we hear sweet giggles and chatter, but when we poke our heads inside the classroom, we find a teacher waving to a computer, welcoming her students to her Zoom classroom.
To be sure, this year has been strange and full of change, but through it all, one thing has remained a constant: the generosity of our supporters, and the resilience of our community. It is with the support of our Jubilee Family that we had the resources and manpower to persevere through this pandemic. Although our programming may have looked different than in years past, we are humbled to say that we helped our community re-stabilize and press on.
Our Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic
While last year was challenging for most, our community was shaken to its core when the pandemic hit. Before our current crisis, Jubilee families were already living paycheck-to-paycheck, with 1 in 4 families making below $15,000; so when we learned that nearly 75% of our surveyed families experienced job or income loss, we knew the situation would soon turn dire. We knew we had to act, and fast.
What happened next was no short of miraculous as neighbors from across our city and beyond came together to support our community. We received everything from dollars to canned food to moving pallets. With the help of our Jubilee Family, we were able to grow our rental and bill assistance program by 6x, giving out over $100,000 in relief to struggling families in our neighborhood. By partnering with Alto, Hunger Busters, Equal Heart, the North Texas Food Bank, the City of Dallas, and countless others, we were also able to drastically scale up our meal distribution to provide 2,000 meals and boxes of food weekly during the height of the crisis.
We will continue to provide emergency services as long as our neighbors need them, but we know that it is equally important to continue our daily work of community change and revitalization. Knowing that a lack of connectivity would be our biggest hurdle in moving our programs online, we worked to connect families in our afterschool program with tablets and WiFi hotspots. Encouraged by the success of our virtual afterschool program, we are continuing to expand our programming, starting with the launch of our first-ever online ESL course for adults.
Learning how to create a sense of community in this strange and socially-distanced time also posed a unique challenge. In a normal year, our events serve as an opportunity for community-building, but in a time in which it could be potentially dangerous for our neighbors to be together, we knew our events could not go on as usual. Undeterred, our Community Outreach Team worked tirelessly to adapt all of our events to a drive-thru model.
Although we look back at 2020 energized by the victories, this year has not been easy. While we have seen great triumphs in our community, we have also witnessed incredible tragedy. Like so many reading this, we have experienced great loss as the coronavirus swept through an already vulnerable population. The hole that those lost left in our community is vast and unfillable; we hold their memories close, more determined than ever to help bring equity to our neighbors.
We enter 2021 with the hope that the New Year brings and the confidence of knowing that whatever lies ahead, we can count on you. We are grateful to count you as a member of our Jubilee Family and as a neighbor no matter the distance.
-The Jubilee Team