Long Beach
By Tom Crowe, St. Luke’s Parishioner and Jubilee Consortium Board Member
The City of Long Beach was incorporated in 1888, and remained a sleepy little farming and resort town until after World War II, when thousands of service men and women settled here after being discharged from the Long Beach Naval Base. So many people from the mid-west settled in Long Beach that it became known as “Iowa-by-the-Sea”. The City has changed much in the last hundred and twenty years. It is now the 5th largest city in California and after the 2000 census, Long Beach was named the most racially diverse city in the United States (USA Today).
In the midst of all this history lies the downtown parish of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, established just 8 years after the City was incorporated. St. Luke’s has reflected the history of the City and has changed from a bastion of the City’s elite to a place of diversity and inclusion that is beginning to reflect the people in the neighborhoods that encompass our geographical parish.
In 2001 St. Luke’s joined with 3 other Episcopal parishes to establish the Jubilee Consortium, a non-profit corporation dedicated to improving the health and well-being of low-income people. In 2008, more than 500 of our neighbors visited the St. Luke’s facilities every month to participate in health-related programs of Jubilee Consortium (Aerobics, Salsa Dancing, Alternatives to Violence Youth Boxing). On many weeknights the contagious beat of high energy Latin music mingles with the dulcet tones of St. Luke’s Choir practice, and the shouts of pride and achievement emanate from the young people in the Alternatives to Violence Youth Boxing Program, contrasting with the noisy violence from the streets surrounding the St. Luke’s Youth Center. This year, you will also smell delicious aromas wafting from St. Luke’s kitchen as Jubilee collaborates with Operation Frontline to offer healthy cooking classes to low-income families, ensuring that the hungry are fed with “good” things and no child goes without food.
As the writing of this letter is being finished, the 44th President of the United States is being inaugurated. This certainly is a season of dreams and wonderful new possibilities. We invite you to join with us at Jubilee Consortium and dream of a Long Beach community filled with people of all kinds striving to make our young people, families and neighborhoods healthy, thriving and whole. Dream with us as we continue to grow and develop new and innovative programs. Get involved by volunteering in our programs. Support Jubilee financially, if you can, even though times are hard and money is tight. Your support has become even more vital during these challenging economic times. Partner with us at Jubilee Consortium so that we can continue to provide programs that help families become healthy today and build healthier communities for tomorrow.