Jubilee hub of neighborhood activity, engagement 

NORTH TEXAS GIVING DAY

By Lexy McCarthy

Jubilee Park & Community Center (Jubilee) is a catalyst for comprehensive community revitalization and enrichment in Southeast Dallas. A place-based organization, the agency serves the Jubilee Park neighborhood, a 62-block area south of I-30 and east of Fair Park, as well as surrounding zip codes.

Jubilee’s multigenerational, wraparound approach focuses on five key Pillars of Impact: Education, Housing & Workforce, Health & Wellness, Safety and Opportunity. Through applying a holistic model to community revitalization, Jubilee focuses on community needs and addresses overlapping areas of inequity — all with the goal of breaking the cycle of generational poverty.

Once a robust, working-class neighborhood, like most of Dallas’ Southern Sector, the Jubilee Park community was significantly impacted when I-30 was built through its center and a nearby factory (where many residents worked) closed. For decades, residents struggled to keep their neighborhoods safe amid crime and municipal neglect.

In 1997, a group of visionary volunteers from Saint Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church came together to establish Jubilee Park & Community Center. Beginning with two small Habitat houses built as multi-use spaces, Jubilee soon became a hub of neighborhood activity, engagement and opportunity.

The holistic approach taken by Jubilee has proven successful, enabling the neighbors themselves to direct the growth of programs according to emerging needs. Crime has been reduced, the center’s free, high-quality programs produce documented learning advancement for students, and neighborhood seniors enjoy new and safer housing and access to robust resources. Today, Jubilee serves 3,000 residents each year with a variety of free programs and services. The 6.25-acre Jubilee campus includes the Walt Humann-T. Boone Pickens Community Center, a Resource Center housing a police substation, two Head Start facilities, a senior housing complex, the Jubilee Food Pantry, a community garden, the Jubilee Park Community Clinic and a beautiful park open to the community for public use.

To address health inequities, Jubilee built the Jubilee Park Community Clinic, which opened in August 2022 and was operating at 75% capacity within less than six weeks of opening. The Clinic provides primary medical and dental care through a partnership with Parkland Health, mental health care available at low or no cost via a partnership with Jewish Family Service, and wraparound programming through Jubilee’s own Health & Wellness team.

In 2023, 3,000 neighbors were impacted by Jubilee’s programs (a 20 percent increase from 2022). Through Jubilee’s Education program, 81 percent of local students continued on grade level or showed significant improvement in reading, and 83 percent of students said that summer camp helped them become successful learners. 

The Health & Wellness team saw a 17 percent increase in program participants, where 61 percent cited Jubilee as the only place they exercise, and the Jubilee Park Community Clinic offered more than 4,000 patient visits to more than 1,700 unique individuals. 

At the Jubilee Park Community Food Pantry, 341 families were able to access fruits, vegetables, meat, dairy and shelf-stable foods, amounting to 170,000 pounds of food shared with the community. Through senior programming, including weekly hot meals and enrichment, 83 percent of seniors reported feeling more connected with others. Additionally, in 2023 alone, there was a 140 percent increase in individuals served through Housing and Workforce programs, allowing them to foster stability through quality home repairs and a path to thriving-wage jobs. This year is looking bright for Jubilee, which is on track to equip another 3,000 community members to forge a stronger path, including through the opening of a third afterschool site, expanding staffing to meet high demand across three programs, and taking steps to secure more affordable housing for the neighborhood.

Give to Jubilee Park & Community Center this North Texas Giving Day to help empower neighbors by supporting critical community needs tied to the Social Determinants of Health: Education, Opportunity, Health, Housing & Workforce, and Safety … to equip them to build a brighter future.

“For over a decade, North Texas Giving Day has helped Jubilee Park strengthen and improve lives in Southeast Dallas’s underserved communities,” says Marissa Castro Mikoy, Jubilee Park’s president and CEO. “Last year alone, we successfully raised over $76,000, which allowed us to impact 3,000 neighbors — a 20 percent increase from 2022! From providing a healthy, hot meal to ensuring community members have a roof over their heads, donations from North Texas Giving Day are not just donations — they are stepping stones to a brighter future filled with opportunity and hope.” 

Visit northtexasgivingday.org/organization/jubileepark to support Jubilee Park & Community Center for #NorthTexasGivingDay2024.