Pillar Spotlight: Health

Imagine for a moment that your goal is to lose weight. You are put in a room without gym equipment, instruction, and healthy foods but with unlimited access to junk food. No matter how determined you are, you find that it is impossible to achieve your goal because your environment has set you up to fail. The same applies to every aspect of our neighbors’ health in a ‘food desert’ like Southeast Dallas: How can we expect our neighbors to be healthy if they do not have access to the tools to help them get healthy? 

At Jubilee, we know that healthy individuals come from healthy communities. Growing up in the Jubilee Park neighborhood, Alejandra Saldaña has seen firsthand how Dallas’s historic under-investment in South Dallas communities leads to grim health outcomes.

Work hard, play harder

Access to a green space directly impacts health outcomes like life expectancy and health status. Although 47.6% and 46.4% of Latinos and African Americans do not meet federal exercise guidelines, they are also less likely to live within walking distance to a park. The soccer fields, basketball courts, walking track, and playground at Jubilee Park provide our neighbors with the only safe place to walk, run, and play in the area.

“People in my family are diabetic,” Alejandra explains, recounting how she watched, helpless, as chronic illness and poor health devastated her family. This experience sparked an interest in health early on, driving her to earn a B.S in Health and Exercise Science from Syracuse University. It wasn’t until she returned to Dallas in 2017 that she realized that her family’s suffering was not isolated, but rather part of a disturbing pattern in Southeast Dallas. 

As Community Support Specialist at Jubilee, Alejandra realized how similar her experience was to so many of her clients that she was serving. When a mother told her she needed help getting to the grocery store, Alejandra empathized. Had she herself not spent entire mornings driving from corner store to corner store in search of fresh milk? “I am focused on health inequities. Our neighbors deserve to live a well-rounded, healthy life.” How could her neighbors ever achieve true wellness if so much of their time and energy was spent trying to access the most basic of resources? 

5 Key Facts

In the following months, Alejandra’s interest in health ignited into a passion, and when Jubilee announced its plan to grow its Health pillar, it was clear to all that Alejandra should lead the newly established Health and Wellness department. Expanding on Jubilee’s existing healthcare services and nutrition support for families was a key focus of 2020 as Jubilee drastically scaled up meal distribution and offered ongoing pop-up clinics throughout the pandemic. In fact, at the height of the economic crisis in June and July, Jubilee distributed 2,000 meals and groceries a week to our Jubilee Park neighbors. 

Under Alejandra’s leadership, Jubilee will continue to grow its Health Pillar in 2021, starting with the revitalization of Jubilee’s youth athletics program and the further expansion of our healthcare services.

“I am taking an equity-focused perspective in our Health programs at Jubilee. Bringing health justice to our neighbors-- that is the end goal, our North Star.”

Jubilee's Response to Winter Storm Uri

When power outages began rippling through the city Sunday evening, the Jubilee Team immediately thought of how they could help their Southeast Dallas neighbors. As an agency that works every day to be a catalyst for resources and opportunity in the Jubilee Park community, they knew that they could not leave their neighbors out in the cold.

By Monday morning, the Jubilee Team had assembled in the Old Church, arms full of canned goods, blankets, and water they had brought from home. In times of crisis, the team is all-hands-on-deck, with everyone from Education to Administrative Support springing into action to ensure that our Jubilee neighbors are taken care of. As the team at the church worked out a game plan, Community Support began making welfare calls: Do you have power? Are you okay? How can we be there for you? The responses were bleak. Power was out across the neighborhood, and families were lacking access to basic items like food and warm clothes. One family reported melting snow as their main water source when they lost water, and another desperately needed blankets. 

The team looked around at the church, empty save a few boxes of sanitary items and stray cans of food leftover from distributions past. The plan had always been to turn the empty church into a food pantry one day, but that plan was going to have to be severely expedited. With limited time and limitless need, they knew that they would have to lean on their Jubilee Family. Within hours, everyday heroes stepped up and donations of food and cold-weather resources began rushing in. 

With help from the Dallas Police Department, the team loaded their cars full of food, blankets, and meals and drove down the treacherous streets of the Jubilee Park neighborhood carefully in a crawl. By late afternoon, they had made it to each household that had called and asked for help, but when they returned, there were dozens of new messages from families in crisis. Every day the team returned to the church, overwhelmed by the depth of need but fueled by the overwhelming support of our Jubilee Family. 

PB&J with Love provided new blankets!

Contran donated hundreds of bags of groceries!

As the team worked steadily into the next week and power began to be restored, it became clear that the Jubilee Park neighborhood was now facing a new crisis: because of the storm, families had gone an entire week unable to work. With one in four families making a household income of just $15,000, a missed week of pay would mean that our neighbors would be unable to put food on their tables. Jubilee was already doing near-daily distributions, passing out almost 100 bags of food at a time, but it just wasn’t enough. Community Outreach Manager Evelyn Amaya was tirelessly working to secure resources for her neighbors when she received some unexpected news from a local digital marketing agency, Social Revolt. 

Social Revolt was expecting a truckload of food and supplies amounting to $150,000 from their philanthropy partner Hispanic Star. They wanted to know if Jubilee would be interested in the supplies, and if we would we be able to put together a city-wide distribution event by Thursday. Jubilee had never done a distribution on this scale before, and Thursday was less than 48-hours away. Without missing a beat, Evelyn said “yes.”

The next two days were a blur as the team jumped in to recruit dozens of volunteers, unload pallets of food and water, and pack over 2,000 bags of food and hygiene items. Other vendors like Jarrito’s and Chilango’s Tacos stepped up to help, offering to hand out meals and drinks to our families, and a local high-school DJ even volunteered to provide entertainment to brighten everyone’s spirits. Jubilee created such a stir that Univision advertised the distribution event, and by 3 PM Thursday there was a line of cars as far as the eye could see outside of the community center. 

The mood was triumphant as the Jubilee Team worked alongside volunteers to pass out the bags, and when the rain began to fall, everyone smiled; they had already proved they couldn’t be stopped. When the last car drove away, the team collapsed onto the picnic benches, resting for what felt like the first time in days. They were exhausted, soaked to the bone, but exhilarated. They knew that tomorrow promised new challenges, but looking around at the faces of volunteers new and old, they knew that they were not in it alone. 

Making Spirits Bright: The Holidays at Jubilee

Every year, our neighbors look forward to our community events as a way to come together in the spirit of community-building. After the uncertainty of the last few months, we knew our Jubilee families needed the festivity and fun that these events bring, so when it became clear that our beloved community events could not happen as usual, we put our heads together and worked with our partners to create special, socially-distanced celebrations.

Back to School Bash

Our Back to School Bash was our first-ever drive-thru event! Although we knew that creating a brand-new drive-thru model for our community events would prove to be a challenge, canceling the Back to School Bash was out of the question. Every year, our community looks forward to the Bash as a way to mark the beginning of the school year and an opportunity to stock up on school supplies.

National Night Out

Every October, Jubilee joins communities from across the country to take part in a National Night Out, a celebration focused on strengthening and celebrating the relationships between the police and their communities. Given Jubilee’s longstanding partnership with the Dallas Police Department as part of our Safety pillar, this community event is near and dear to our community. In a typical year, Jubilee welcomes hundreds of community members into our park for a festival that lasts well into the evening! Although we could not gather in our park for the festivities, we are happy to report that this year’s National Night Out event was a success! Our families enjoyed live music, dance, and treats from our Jubilee team. It was heartening to see our families come together to celebrate their community.

Halloween

We knew that it was more important than ever to make Halloween “sweet” for our Jubilee kids. In place of our haunted house, we encouraged attendees to dress in their Halloween best and cranked up the spooky tunes. We were overwhelmed by generous donations from organizations and individuals from across the metroplex who gave Halloween decorations, spooky masks, and candy!

Senior Thanksgiving and Christmas Luncheons

Thanksgiving and Christmastime are perhaps the most beloved events for our seniors. Our Thanksgiving and Christmas luncheons provide a special opportunity for our seniors to come together as a community to celebrate the holidays as neighbors.

Conflicted between the need to keep our most vulnerable population safe and the desire to ease isolation brought on by the pandemic, it was important to find a way to bring our seniors together safely. With the help of volunteers and community partners, we were able to adapt our luncheons to a drive-thru model. Our volunteers donned their holiday best and passed out bags of food and basic necessities, catered meals, and a sweet holiday dessert!

I Believe in Angels

For our Jubilee families, the holiday season is a stressful time, now intensified by the pandemic that has caused so many of our families to lose their jobs or suffer decreased wages. Parents place letters to Santa next to the stack of bills, wanting very much to give their children the experience of unwrapping gifts on Christmas morning.

Through the I Believe In Angels project (IBIA), Jubilee gives parents the gift of seeing their children’s faces light up on Christmas morning. Under normal circumstances, this project is an enormous undertaking, and this year our volunteers were tasked with bringing Christmas cheer to their Jubilee neighbors in the face of a global pandemic. Volunteers worked around the clock, baking hundreds of loaves of gingerbread, visiting every Target in the metroplex to provide our children with gifts, spearheading pajama drives at their schools, and wrapping presents well into the night. Truly, the entire operation would have put Santa’s workshop to shame. 

As a result of this hard work and astounding show of generosity, we were able to provide gifts for 330 children from 85 families. These gifts included a present and gift card for each child in the family and a beautiful grocery bag with a holiday meal and treats.

With our 2020 events officially wrapped, we want to give an enormous THANK YOU to everyone who worked so hard to make the holidays a little brighter at Jubilee.

-The Jubilee Team

2020 In Review

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

Staff Spotlight: Ranita Dement

Dr. Ranita Dement is a self-described lifelong learner. With several advanced degrees and over 20 years of teaching under her belt, Ranita is most in her element in the classroom, though seeing the inside of a school seemed like an impossible dream when Ranita was born with severe epilepsy that kept her out of school until age seven. Because Ranita was so far behind, she was placed in a special education classroom that she describes as “like an emergency room.” In a special education classroom, Ranita explained, students from all grade levels and abilities are crammed into a singular classroom so “teaching skills like reading was not the protocol. The emphasis was to get them back in general ed.”

That experience inspired her to major in Special Education at the University of Central Arkansas where she later earned a Master’s in Elementary Education with an emphasis in reading. “I was called to it; I knew what it was like to feel singled out. I knew kids felt embarrassed to be in special education.” While teaching and later serving as assistant superintendent, Ranita never stopped learning and went on to earn two M.A’s and a Doctorate in Education Leadership and Policy from the University of Missouri.

After so many years in education, when Ranita moved to Dallas in 2018, she planned to finally retire. But destiny had bigger things in store for her. One day at the beauty parlor, Ranita ran into her friend Marjorie who was then working at Jubilee Park. “She was picking my brain about Jubilee’s new S3 program and I told her if this was going to work, you needed a special education teacher, and someone with administrative experience. When she said, ‘So, someone like you?’ I laughed. I said, no way, I just retired!” But when Ranita came to tour Jubilee Park, she couldn’t say no. “The park, the neighborhood, the cute kids-- that’s how they get you!”

Ranita joined with a bold and overarching vision for the program and has since been joined by two certified interventionists, Kendra Spears and Andrea Alvarez. With a bigger team, Ranita has big plans for 2020 and beyond.

"I want to show kids that it doesn't matter what your diagnosis is. If you stay the course, you can achieve anything."

Jubilee Announces Selection of New CEO

On February 19, 2020, Jubilee Park announced Ben Leal, President & CEO, has accepted a new opportunity and will be departing the organization after nine years of dedicated, committed service to our community. After an extensive and rigorous search led by Jubilee’s Board of Directors and Search Committee, we are excited to announce that Marissa Castro Mikoy will be joining our Jubilee Family as President and CEO effective July 6, 2020.

BACKGROUND AND EXPERIENCE

Marissa brings with her a wealth of knowledge and an extensive background in both the education and nonprofit sectors. Her holistic approach to community success and background in education reflect a core belief in Jubilee’s 5 Pillars of Impact. Her 23 years of experience include her most recent service as the Executive Director at After School All Stars (Dallas, TX), where she focused on organizational leadership, fundraising, organizational promotion, and programming. As a result of her leadership, the organization grew to 6 times the size and created a sustainable fundraising strategy to ensure long-term access to important programs. A native Texan, Marissa's career has included significant work in the Washington, D.C. area where she worked with the D.C. Public Charter School Board. Marissa was charged with providing academic and operational performance oversight to D.C. charter schools, as well as providing early childhood technical support. She was instrumental in leading a city-wide Task Force of D.C. charter schools in the development of an early childhood performance management framework that uses common goals and metrics to assess D.C. public schools. In 2012, Marissa’s efforts to improve educational equity in under-resourced communities earned her national recognition when President Obama’s Administration named her as a "Champion of Change" for her work in AmeriCorps and a career dedicated to social justice, change, and education.

She and her husband live in Richardson with their two sons. When she is not working, Marissa loves to cook, play tennis, swim, and spend time with her family.

LEADERSHIP TRANSITION

Marissa is excited to work closely with Jubilee’s high-performing staff, dedicated Board of Directors, committed volunteers, and engaged community members to fulfill Jubilee’s mission. She will lead the organization in improving lives and strengthening community while expanding organizational capacity to fulfill Jubilee’s strategic priorities and trajectory for growth.

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 El 19 de febrero de 2020, Jubilee Park anunció que Ben Leal, presidente y director ejecutivo, aceptó una nueva oportunidad y se va a partir de la organización después de nueve años de servicio dedicado y comprometido con nuestra comunidad. Después de una búsqueda exhaustiva y rigurosa dirigida por la Junta de Directores y el Comité de Búsqueda de Jubilee, nos complace anunciar que Marissa Castro Mikoy se unirá a nuestra Familia Jubilee como Presidente y CEO a partir del 6 de julio de 2020.

EXPERENCIA

Marissa trae consigo una gran cantidad de conocimientos y una amplia experiencia en los sectores de educación y sin fines de lucro. Su enfoque holístico para el éxito de la comunidad y sus antecedentes en educación reflejan una creencia central en los 5 pilares de impacto de Jubilee. Sus 23 años de experiencia incluyen su servicio más reciente como Directora Ejecutiva en After School All Stars (Dallas, TX), donde se enfocó en liderazgo organizacional, recaudación de fondos, promoción organizacional y programación. Como resultado de su liderazgo, la organización creció hasta 6 veces el tamaño y creó una estrategia de recaudación de fondos sostenible para garantizar el acceso a largo plazo a programas importantes. Originaria de Texas, la carrera de Marissa ha incluido un trabajo significativo en el área de Washington, D.C., donde trabajó con la Junta de Escuelas Públicas Chárter de D.C. Marissa fue encargada de proporcionar supervisión del desempeño académico y operativo a las escuelas autónomas de DC, así como también de brindar asistencia técnica para la primera infancia. Ella jugó un papel decisivo en el liderazgo de una Fuerza de Tarea en toda la ciudad de escuelas autónomas de DC en el desarrollo de un marco de gestión del desempeño en la primera infancia que utiliza objetivos y métricas comunes para evaluar las escuelas públicas de DC. En 2012, los esfuerzos de Marissa para mejorar la equidad educativa en comunidades de escasos recursos le valieron el reconocimiento nacional cuando la Administración del presidente Obama la nombró como "Campeona del cambio" por su trabajo en AmeriCorps y una carrera dedicada a la justicia social, el cambio y la educación. Ella y su esposo viven en Richardson con sus dos hijos. Cuando no está trabajando, a Marissa le encanta cocinar, jugar tenis, nadar y pasar tiempo con su familia.

TRANSICIÓN DE LIDERAZGO

Marissa está entusiasmada de trabajar estrechamente con el personal de alto rendimiento de Jubilee, la Junta de Directores dedicada, los voluntarios comprometidos y los miembros de la comunidad comprometidos para cumplir la misión de Jubilee. Dirigirá a la organización para mejorar vidas y fortalecer la comunidad al tiempo que expande la capacidad organizacional para cumplir con las prioridades estratégicas y la trayectoria de Jubilee para el crecimiento.

A Lesson on Resilience: Our Response to COVID-19

As the COVID-19 crisis began to unfold earlier this year, we could not have fathomed how devastating the impact would be on our community. In the weeks following Dallas’s stay-at-home order, we began to survey the damage the pandemic had caused. Through hundreds of long and difficult conversations, we learned that nearly 75% of our households experienced job loss or suffered decreased wages, and children were rapidly falling behind in school due to a digital divide. We knew that the situation would soon become dire if we did not act.

However, in this time of considerable uncertainty and tumult, one thing has remained constant: the incredible generosity of our Jubilee Family. We are blown away by the outpouring of support we have received over the past few weeks. In the last two months, we have been able to expand our bill assistance service, Seeds of Hope, by 12x and scale up our meal distribution program to provide 2,000 meals weekly for school-aged children and seniors in our community.

Our strategic partners, like Alto, Saint Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church, Hardies, VNA, Equal Heart, Services of Hope, and many others have demonstrated a willingness to be innovative throughout this crisis. This pandemic has demanded courage, compassion, and true out-of-the-box thinking, and we are so proud to say that our Jubilee Family has delivered.

You have energized, encouraged, and inspired us as we continue to work to meet the evolving needs of our community. We know that this crisis is not yet behind us, but we are ready to meet whatever challenges lay ahead. Thank you for your support; we could not do this work without you.

NEW Family Empowerment Program Takes Off!

To jump start its work in closing the opportunity gap in Southeast Dallas, Jubilee hired a Community Support Specialist, Alejandra, to lead the charge on creating a Family Empowerment Program to strengthen families and build a pipeline of local leaders.

In partnership with National Center for Families Learning, Jubilee works with families through a year-long Family Empowerment Program aimed at building stronger families and encouraging advocacy within the community. The Family Empowerment Program consists of four main focus areas: Adult Skill Building, Parent Time, Parent/Child Time, and a Family Service Learning Project. Adult skill building seminars - such as resume workshops, interview prep, small business 101, public speaking, and home ownership courses - are hosted by the Family Empowerment Program but many are open to the public and provide crucial tools for Jubilee residents to take ownership of their livelihoods and their futures. From the first resume workshop alone, our neighbors made great strides:

S.J. and her daughter Carla came to the resume workshop hoping to build a stronger application for a quality job or internship over the summer that could prepare Carla for college applications. Within just a couple of months, Carla landed a shadow program position for the summer at a large corporation headquartered in Dallas.

Maria was looking for employment and had not been working while she had young kids at home. Worried about her qualifications after being out of the workforce for so long, Maria thought maybe the resume workshop could help. When Jubilee staff called Maria just one month after the workshop, she had secured a new job in child care paying $16 per hour – that’s more than double her previous wage. Not just any additional income, this livable wage means so much for her family ‘s future and we are excited to see what’s next!  

This fall, the 14 families signed up for the Family Empowerment Program will take the skills they’ve learned about local government systems, advocacy, and planning to embark on a Family Service Learning Project of their choice. Ideas that came up in initial planning were speed bumps in front of the Community Center or a free book share program. We look forward to keeping you updated on their progress!

Afterschool Matters

Why Afterschool?

In Jubilee Park, 98% of students qualify for the free/reduced lunch program, and 67.5% are considered to be “at-risk” (DISD School Profile, TEA 202). All of these existing factors set kids up for statistically high risk of drug or alcohol abuse, grade retention, delinquency, drop-out rates, and incarceration. On top of that, low-income families often live in neighborhoods with under-performing schools and a lack of resources, compared to their more affluent peers.

This is where Jubilee’s Afterschool program comes in. Afterschool programs can provide children with the enrichment, care, and extra support that they need to thrive.

Cost of Afterschool

For low-income children in particular, the support needs to be high quality and affordable.

Families in Jubilee Park often make less than $20,000 a year to support a family of five. Jubilee finds that the average cost of quality afterschool programming may cost as much as $4,320 per year (according to Public/Private Partnerships and the Wallace Foundation), more than 20% of the average Jubilee neighborhood family’s income. Furthermore, a working parent without reliable afterschool childcare may miss up to eight days of work per year, a significant impact on family income.  A study by ChildTrends found that students who attend low-quality or average-quality programs show no difference in learning compared to students who attend no program at all.  Therefore, quality programs that are free-of-cost are essential to families living below the poverty line, as many are in Southeast Dallas.

The SOlution: Jubilee’s Afterschool Program

Jubilee is the only free program in Southeast Dallas that provides high-quality academic enrichment, and serves 200 children each school year.  Afterschool at Jubilee includes a healthy meal, homework help, academic enrichment with a reading and math focus, social-emotional learning, and at least 30 minutes of physical activity. In addition, children have access to extra support through Jubilee’s free mental health clinic and Specialized Student Support (S3) Program which provides one-on-one interventions for students with learning differences. The elements of Jubilee’s Afterschool Program contribute to a whole-child learning model which directly combats many of the risks mentioned above.

Jubilee’s program is free for families who need it because of the donors and volunteers that generously give their time, talent, and treasure to Jubilee. You can donate online here or sign up to volunteer at volunteer@jubileecenter.org to help provide free, quality afterschool enrichment to children in Southeast Dallas.

Staff Spotlight: Ben Leal

Ben Leal, President & CEO

Whether through his 8-year tenure at Jubilee, or after reading about him in Voyage, Dallas Business Journal, or KERA, you might think you’ve heard all there is to know about Jubilee’s President & CEO, Ben Leal.

But, how well do you really know Ben? Take this 8-question quiz to find out!