Jubilee Park & Community Center

The Jubilee Park community, a 62-block neighborhood bounded by I-30, Fair Park, and Crosstown Expressway, was once a robust, working class neighborhood. Then, a major highway was built through its center, and a nearby factory (where many residents worked) closed. For decades, people struggled to keep their neighborhood safe amid rampant crime and municipal neglect. 

In 1997, a group of visionary neighbors and volunteers from Saint Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church came together to establish Jubilee Park & Community Center as a catalyst for comprehensive community revitalization. Beginning with two small 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 more than 3,000 low-income residents each year with a variety of free programs and services under five key pillars: Education, Opportunity, Housing & Workforce, Health, and Safety. The 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, food pantry, community garden, and a three-acre park. Jubilee's Out-of-School Time Program is the only free, high-quality afterschool and summer program in Southeast Dallas, and participants continue to produce demonstrated gains in academic skills and social emotional learning. 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 partnership with Parkland Health, mental health care available at no cost in partnership with Jewish Family Service, and wraparound programming through Jubilee's Office of Health & Wellness. This groundbreaking collaboration wraps medical care with Jubilee's robust continuum of culturally competent and free nutrition, exercise, education, and case management services to address the full spectrum of wellness.   

Our Needs

Over the past 27 years of working successfully to help revitalize a challenged community, Jubilee has earned the credibility and trust of residents and stakeholders. But with the average resident living an average of 22 years less years less than their neighbors who live just north of the highway and with most families still struggling to make ends meet, our work is far from over. 

In 2023 alone:

1. 329 children engaged in in-person academic intervention and enrichment activities though our afterschool and summer programming. 
2. 304 youth participated in our group sports and 192 adults participated in our group exercise classes. 
3. 285 individuals were served through our Minor Home Repair Program.
4. 22,005 meals were served to our senior neighbors and 3,067 bags of groceries were distributed through the Jubilee Park food pantry. 
5. The Clinic served more than 4,000 patients.

Today, Jubilee continues to make measurable progress toward combatting our city’s inequities by providing services across our five pillars of impact. What cannot be quantified, however, is the sense of hope and pride that our families have gained. 

Just imagine the potential waiting to be unlocked in Southeast Dallas. Your neighbors in Jubilee Park are fighting for equity in the face of incredible odds and the most difficult of circumstances. When you give to Jubilee this North Texas Giving Day, you are empowering our families 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. Please consider joining us today to help us reach our goal of raising $100,000 to ignite change in Southeast Dallas.