10/4/2018
The Platform of Hope Gets Underway
Over the past two years, Jubilee has helped incubate the Platform of Hope, a strategic alliance of six organizations working in concert to provide opportunities for D.C. families earning low incomes.
Last week, the Platform officially got underway with the first meeting of its initial cohort of 20 families.
The Platform’s series of connected, supportive services—sponsored by the collaborative of Capital Area Asset Builders, For Love of Children, Jubilee Housing, Jubilee Jumpstart, Mary’s Center, and Sitar Arts Center—is designed to enable diverse families to remain in D.C.’s rapidly gentrifying Ward 1 and to ensure that people of all socioeconomic and racial backgrounds can thrive in the District. The families piloting the Platform were selected from among families already participating in a program run by one of the Platform partner organizations.
Using an approach that is family-centric and outcome-focused from the start, collaborating Platform organizations will assist families in outlining their specific housing, health, educational, financial, and other goals for participation with the Platform. Then, the organizations will help families create individualized plans to achieve their goals—through services offered by the Platform alliance. Progress toward those goals will be measured over time, by capturing empirical data.
“Members of the Platform alliance believe this initiative could transform the way we address inequity in D.C.,” said Sylvia Stokes, Platform of Hope project lead. “By creating interconnected solutions to families’ needs, with one point of entry, we make it easier for families to get the support they need to lead more stable, healthy, and productive lives—in this generation and the next.”
Over the course of their participation with the Platform, families will have access to resources to help them succeed, including quality pre-school, asset building, and educational programs as well as opportunities for deeply affordable homes. In addition, families will receive support from the sponsor organizations’ staffs and their cohort members.
The Platform steering committee actively engaged Ward 1 residents in every step of the process that led to the Platform’s creation. Their feedback and insights shaped the initiative’s design and will help modify it as the steering committee brings the Platform to scale over the next five years.
Jubilee Welcomes New VP of Programs
As Jubilee Housing works to refresh its programs and ensure they meet its residents’ needs, a new vice president of Programs is leading the way. In July, Kevin Sharps joined Jubilee in that role, bringing extensive experience in providing opportunities for individuals with low incomes to pursue their dreams.
Sharps came to Jubilee after serving as vice president of Resident Services at Nevada HAND (Housing and Neighborhood Development), in Las Vegas, where he created and oversaw high-quality programming for residents of affordable housing. A native Marylander, he returns to the DMV, where he still has family living.
In his new position, Sharps not only establishes and manages Jubilee’s services for youth, families, and individuals returning from incarceration, but also directs the development of new quality-of-life programming for Jubilee’s growing population of seniors. In addition, Sharps supervises case management services for Jubilee residents.
“I’m focusing on strengthening the cohesiveness of Jubilee’s programs, so individuals and families can easily access the organization’s continuum of services through a single point of entry,” Sharps said. “Then, over their engagement with various services, I’d like residents to be able to seamlessly adjust their participation, as their needs dictate.”
Jubilee Housing’s D.C. Can Be Tours
D.C. can be just. D.C. can be affordable. D.C. can be a city accessible to all residents, no matter their race, income, background, or history of incarceration.
This is what Jubilee Housing is fighting for. And you can be a champion in the battle.
Starting this fall, Jubilee will offer monthly D.C. Can Be tours. These fast-paced, 60-minute, tours will provide participants a window into Jubilee’s work right now—and our big plans for the future—to make our city a more diverse and welcoming place for working families.
D.C. Can Be tours will feature resident stories, staff discussions and a conversation with Jubilee Housing Executive Director Jim Knight about Jubilee’s vision for the District. Tour participants will walk to visit a few different Jubilee sites, all close by in Jubilee’s core neighborhoods of Adams Morgan, Columbia Heights, and Mount Pleasant. Along the way and at the various stops, participants will hear about recent programmatic initiatives, new buildings under development, and exciting partnerships—all of which are key to creating more justice housingTM for District residents with the lowest incomes.
The tours begin October 5 and continue every first Friday, from 8:30 – 9:30 a.m. If you haven’t seen or heard about Jubilee’s latest successes, join us—and bring your friends, colleagues, church members, business partners, and more.
To join a tour, contact Tristan Dewar at tdewar@jubileehousing.org or (202) 559-2341.
Let us show you how Jubilee is addressing the lack of affordable housing in D.C.