I feel like I had nothing to do with Dom’s success. I’ve noticed this is a constant, reoccurring feeling I have while at Chrysalis.  I work hard, but I feel like I am always just scratching the surface. In my mind, I am never doing enough. The gratitude I get from the population I serve, however, suggests otherwise. I find this feeling alternately inspirational and a little unnerving. Inspirational because I see that I can make a difference in the lives of my fellow humans, even if I don’t feel I’m doing enough. It’s unnerving because I can’t help but wonder why I don’t always try to work a little harder, or why we don’t all try to do just a little bit more for one another.

Addison Callahan, EUIP Intern09-10

Market Makeovers features the work of some high school students in South Los Angeles who have been working on three stores in their neighborhood as case studies.

For two years, South L.A. Healthy Eating Active Communities Initiative and Public Matters have worked with the students from the Accelerated School. The initiative, funded by the California Endowment, is an effort to reduce childhood diabetes and obesity. Public Matters is a California-based group of artists, educators and media professionals working on neighborhood-based projects.

– Mary MacVean for the Los Angeles Times

Expansion of Jubilee Sites
For many years, Jubilee Consortium based its program and community-building at three different sites: St. Luke’s in Long Beach; Holy Faith in Inglewood and St. Stephen’s in Hollywood. In 2009, we doubled the number of sites where we offer health-oriented education and exercise classes several times per week. Our new partners include Grant Elementary School, All Saints Church in Highland Park and Trinity Church in East Hollywood. We are especially excited about Trinity Church who, this year, accepted the invitation to become a member institution of Jubilee. Now, in addition to being a place where Jubilee programming happens, the community of Trinity Church also has chosen to embrace, as their own, Jubilee’s mission to make healthy and just communities.

Additional Classes
With new sites come new classes. When Jubilee began, we had about three classes per week, and not every week. Now we have over 35 class offerings each week. Nearly every evening at each of Jubilee’s six sites, you will find dozens of people doing aerobics, practicing yoga, dancing salsa, doing cardio-boxing, learning how to cook healthy meals, becoming more aware of health issues, and developing their own capacity and enhancing their skills for community leadership.

Operation Frontline
Last year, in partnership with the Share Our Strength and the Center for Community and Family Services, Jubilee launched a new program called Operation Frontline - Los Angeles. Operation Frontline is a hands-on educational program that aims to teach low-income individuals and families to prepare healthy, nutritional meals on very limited budgets. The six-week cooking courses involve professional chefs and nutritionists. Jubilee has already hosted four of these life-changing classes at its sites and intends to make the Operation Frontline classes a regular offering in the community.

Adding the Episcopal Urban Intern Program
This past year, Jubilee took on a new program: the Episcopal Urban Intern Program (EUIP), a year-long service learning project which aims to cultivate leadership capacities of young people. Each fall, EUIP gathers a new class of young adults from across the United States to live in community and to work for change in some of Los Angeles County’s most innovative and effective social service agencies. EUIP is part of the Episcopal Service Corps (ESC), a network of young adult programs within the Episcopal Church that work for social change and personal transformation through service to others. Next year, Jubilee hopes to expand the program and open a new community house in Long Beach for an additional class of interns to live.

New Churches and Schools
Jubilee is currently talking and planning with at least six other schools and churches, from Lincoln Heights to Downtown to Hawthorne about launching and developing programming at their sites. There is no shortage of need across Los Angeles County and more and more institutions are realizing the benefits of partnering with Jubilee to promote health and wellness in their communities.

Thank You
Thanks for you commitment to helping us make our neighborhoods life-giving, health-embracing communities where everyone can thrive. Happy Thanksgiving!

When I was in seminary, our very old, very thin, very traditional, and venerable Liturgics Professor always spoke in a very low voice. He enunciated very clearly or taking notes would have been an exercise in futility.

One day he quietly unfurled a story about introducing Sixties “revisions” to the Book of Common Prayer. After the service, a parishioner complained about a versicle in Morning Prayer – “let not the hope of the poor be taken away.” The parishioner raised his voice in outrage, “That’s Communism!” Our professor, in our class years removed from the incident raised his voice in frustration and said, “It’s the Psalms!”

The Episcopal Church has changed since those days. Debates on sexuality may dominate some people’s theological passions and the media’s need for a circus, but the Episcopal Church keeps committing itself more fully to the hopes of the poor, and July’s General Convention was no exception. In spite of budget cuts, the Convention re-committed funds to the Millennium Development Goals and the Presiding Bishop reiterated her commitment to respond to domestic poverty.

What the Church says perhaps mostly in prayer and in theory, the Jubilee Consortium enacts in practice. Those of us involved in the Jubilee Consortium know that the hopes of the poor are many, but they include health and well-being, and a yearning that the next generation not be swallowed up by violence or stigmatized by the pockmarks of poverty.

Those of us involved in the Jubilee Consortium also know that tying our lives to the hopes of the poor is meaningful but hard work. Tangible and effective responses to ethical and ethereal commitments are always remarkably tricky. As the Jewish theologian Martin Buber said, “It is difficult, terribly difficult, to drive the plowshare of the normative principle into the hard soil of political reality.”

Theories can be inspiring. The interchange of ideas can be fun. Words are easy. Conventions make statements. Churches make pronouncements. Making ethics break through the hard soil of life is backbreaking and sometimes spirit-sinking work. But that is precisely what the Jubilee Consortium does. We apply our faith, our ethics, and our commitment and bring them to bear in local communities, very hard places indeed.

“Communism” has been replaced as an epithet by other bugaboos, but responding to the hope of the poor was never about communism. It’s a matter of commitment. It’s the Psalms (stupid)! It’s part of our faith. And through Jubilee, it’s part of our life.

How wonderful it is that no one need wait a single moment to start improving the world. – Anne Frank, age 14.

Recently, I was introduced to a wonderful youth leadership program – YouthGive, a nonprofit organization that is building a community of giving created and guided by young people. The YouthGive idea is a simple one, guided by the clarity of an eight-year-old. Philanthropy is not just for grown-ups, celebrities and billionaires. Kids/youth have imaginative spirits and want to help others. Young people need tools to cultivate and tap the giving gene we all share. The Internet shrinks the world, creating new and powerful opportunities for local and global connection. A true start to improving the world … no one is too young, no one needs to wait. [YouthGive-The New Currency of Change]

As adults in leadership roles, we must promote the character and competence of all young people growing up in today’s world to improve it. It is our moral inheritance to support youth to stay the course of challenging times – and these times are the most challenging ever. We must provide the right encouragement to develop youth leadership. Some of our young people are born to move and shake the world – they are blessed with high energy, exceptional intelligence, extreme persistence, self-confidence and the ability to positively influence others. But not all youth are able to use their gifts in the face of adversity. These youth need a little help to start improving the world – they need skills for their toolboxes.

So, what can be done to start improving the world? What tools can we provide? We can support organizations such as Jubilee Consortium (and others) to provide youth programs that are alternatives to violence, violence that so many of our young people face today. Jubilee Consortium offers “Keep It Real,” a boxing program that prevents and reduces violence among its youth participants. This program fosters understanding and respect across ethnic, linguistic and gender lines as it develops youth leadership skills. The youth meet at various Jubilee sites on weekday afternoons and early evenings with activities that focus around boxing training and practice, with health and fitness education, anger management training, and leadership development woven into each session.

And in this way, with programs such as “Keep It Real,” our youth are part of the solution and not part of the problem. They are able to improve the world – their world – through the new currency of change. Do something today to be part of solution! Support Jubilee Consortium.

What might surprise many people, however, is that a major risk factor for obesity is the neighborhood where you live. How can this be? What does neighborhood have to do with lack of physical activity or poor nutrition? Isn’t lack of physical activity a matter of laziness and poor nutrition a matter of an undisciplined sweet tooth? No, not really. While individual choices have something do to with it, researchers are increasingly finding that environment is a primary factor in determining who becomes obese.

A recent study by Community Health Councils, Inc. found that there are only a little over 1 acre of park and recreation area per 1,000 population in South LA compared with over 70 acres per 1,000 population in West LA. And there are four times as many miles of bicycles lanes in West LA compared with South LA. Put this together with the fact that there are 8.5 liquor stores per square mile in South LA compared with slightly less than 2 liquor stores per square mile in West LA. And there are only 6 farmer’s markets in South LA compared with 16 in West LA.* These stark discrepancies in physical environment make it much more difficult for families in South LA, and similarly under-resourced urban neighborhoods, to make healthy food choices and get adequate physical activity.

The Jubilee Consortium is making a contribution to reversing these discrepancies, working with community members to promote health, offer alternatives to violence, develop leaders and train health advocates. The Jubilee Consortium currently offers 25 weekly exercise classes (aerobics, yoga, boxing and dance,) 4 healthy cooking classes and several health education workshops in Hollywood, Inglewood, Long Beach and South Los Angeles, with over 800 men, women and children attending these classes each week. For a small donation, families can come several times a week to exercise in an enjoyable, safe, convenient environment.

While the Jubilee Consortium provides additional physical activity opportunities on a direct scale, it also participates in the larger movement of changing the entire landscape of under-resourced communities like South LA. Not too far in the future, the Jubilee Consortium will unite with other like-minded community groups through a coalition convened through CHC. It will gather with local doctors, city planners, bike-lovers, basketball coaches and partner with community leaders to bring more bike paths, green space, and farmer’s markets to their neighborhoods so that we all have an equal chance to make healthy choices.

*Park, Annie, Nancy Watson, and Lark Galloway-Gilliam. South Los Angeles Health Equity Scorecard. Community Health Councils, Inc.: Los Angeles, CA. December 2008. Available at: http://www.chc-inc.org/userimages/South%20LA%20Scorecard.pdf

I am very excited about the nascent work that we are doing in the area of community organizing and advocacy training. The possibility of using the synergy created by people interested in improving health for creating opportunities for, and an environment of, health and wellness in their neighborhoods is powerful. Always we are told that the only way to truly care for your health is to learn enough to be an advocate for yourself. Having a group of people who have learned the power of this in their own life and become committed to insuring that this power is shared with their families and neighbors can be revolutionary. Communities as a source of health and healing, safety and empowerment - that is the vision of Jubilee Consortium that inspires my involvement with the Jubilee Consortium.

The possibility of anchoring this “community for health” in the long term comes from the work with churches. Churches as community institutions can provide the longevity and consistency of location which is so important to creating community. In changing and challenging urban communities, the unique gift that houses of worship provide is their long term commitment to the wholeness of the community. Jubilee Consortium has shown that churches and communities can successfully partner in transforming and improving the quality of life of our neighborhoods and cities.

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.

The Operation Frontline® program, developed by Share Our Strength, helps low-income families help themselves by teaching them how to prepare healthy, low-cost meals. Professional chefs and nutritionists volunteer their time and expertise to lead hands-on courses that teach adults, teens and kids how to get the most nutrition out of a limited budget.

Since 1993, Operation Frontline® and its hundreds of volunteer instructors have conducted 3,800 nutrition and financial-planning courses helping 43,000 low-income families in communities across the country learn how to eat better for less. Each class includes hands-on meal preparation led by a chef who teaches participants that cooking healthy foods can be simple, enjoyable, delicious, and affordable. The courses cover basic nutrition, food safety, and food budgeting so that participants are able to plan and prepare low-cost nutritious meals for themselves and their families. Operation Frontline® offers courses for adults, children, teens, and, parents and children together as well as persons living with HIV and AIDS. Operation Frontline® has received special recognition by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for excellence in nutrition education.

We would love to have your active involvement and support in building Operation Frontline Los Angeles into a vibrant program. Can you help? We are looking for local volunteer chefs and nutritionists to participate in the cooking classes and financial contributions to help fund the program into the future and make it a powerful vehicle for positive change for low-income families in Los Angeles. If you would like more information on how you can help, please call Jubilee Consortium’s Executive Director, Jaime Edwards-Acton at 323.469.3993.

[i] Much of the above information is taken from Share Our Strength literature

I have devoted most of my adult life to working with young people – as an educator, a mentor, a coach, a big sister, an auntie, and a godparent as well as a single-parent. It became very clear to me, early on, that guidance is critical in a young person’s life. Guidance that comes from caring adults – caring adults who are investing in tomorrow’s future. I also believe strongly that guidance goes hand-in-hand with youth development.

Karen Pittman, executive director of the Forum for Youth Investment, defines youth development as the ongoing process in which all youth are engaged in attempting to (1) meet their basic personal and social needs to be safe, feel cared for, be valued, be useful, and be spiritually grounded, and (2) to build skills and competencies that allow them to function and contribute in their daily lives. As Hugh Price, former president and CEO of the National Urban League, put it so succinctly in 1998, youth development is “what parents do for their children … on a good day.”

Today’s parents are straddled with so many more challenges in parenting/raising a family than our parents ever did in decades past. This is why “youth development is a combination of all of the people, places, supports, opportunities and services that most of us inherently understand that young people need to be happy, healthy and successful.”
And THIS is where the Jubilee Consortium comes into the arena of the many youth development (and family-focused) programs. Jubilee provides “the ongoing process” and level of guidance with its array of program offerings for the whole family (e.g., youth leadership: youth boxing and scuba diving; and health: aerobics and salsa dancing). Jubilee’s array of experiences incorporates the key elements of supports, opportunities and quality services as well as a spiritual component.

As a (non-Episcopal) board member of the Jubilee Consortium, I recognize the driving force, strength and vision that the Consortium’s founding rectors brought to the many neighborhoods served, recognizing the disparities in urban, low-income, predominantly minority communities. This core group of “member churches came together out of a common belief that churches should be able to provide much more for their communities than a place to worship.

These churches understood that through a dedicated, coordinated, collaborative effort, they could work towards effecting a more meaningful social change within their communities.” And as a board member, I am honored and humbled to be in the company of such insightful leadership and commitment as we create healthy and just neighborhoods through enrichment opportunities and leadership programs.