stablished as The Homework Club in 1996 and moving into our new building in 2003, The Jubilee Center is an after school and summer safe haven for children in Hoboken's public housing neighborhood; a neighborhood with a history of gang activity, violent crime and drug-related arrests. The Center provides quality after school programming for over seventy students from K-6th grade from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. during the school year and from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. during the summer. The Center also provides needed activities full time during school breaks throughout the year. As noted by former NJ State Senator Bernard Kenny, Jr., The Jubilee Center is one of the city's most important achievements in the past decade. The Jubilee Center is a project of All Saints Community Service and Development Corporation, a non-sectarian, non-profit organization.
Your support is essential to our programs. Please click the button above to donate via PayPal, or send donations to The Jubilee Center, 601 Jackson Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030. Please make all checks payable to The Jubilee Center. If you use the PayPal button, please specify in the note field which program or event your donation is for.
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Mission
The Jubilee Center exists to equip children from Hoboken's public housing neighborhood with the tools, not only to survive, but to overcome the many barriers they face in their young lives.
Why It's Important
Hoboken's children are among the most economically disadvantaged in Hudson County. The school nearest to the city's public housing neighborhood was identified by The New Jersey Department of Education as serving the highest percentage of low-income children in the state. 96% of these children rely on the free breakfast and lunch at school available to children who live beneath the poverty line. Affordable after school programming in Hoboken is scarce, making it so very important for The Jubilee Center to exist.
What We Do
Homework Help and Tutoring
Jubilee students are given homework assistance every week day of the academic year from 3:15 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. and it is the program our kids love the most! This assistance is provided by Jubilee Senior Counselors, Alumni Jubilee Students, and our core group of dedicated volunteers. The Center also provides the Boost Tutoring Program Monday through Thursday nights from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m., giving our students extra academic help in subjects with which they are experiencing difficulties. This program is fully staffed by community volunteers. To find out more about volunteering at The Jubilee Center see the Volunteer Page.
Enrichment
Children build communication, collaboration, and conflict resolution skills through the arts while deepening their self awareness and sense of personal worth. That is why The Jubilee Center currently offers dance, voice, poetry, creative writing, cooking and visual arts from 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., Monday through Thursday. Through a grant from the Hudson County Cultural Affairs Division our children have learned jazz, tap, modern, Hip-Hop and ballet. The Center also provides visual arts workshops, and the curriculum based "Heroes" character development workshop to serve these same objectives.
Evening Meals
One of the obstacles these children face is the rampant asthma, obesity and high blood pressure that can result from the high caloric, un-nutritious, quick and inexpensive foods that are most readily available to them. 96% of the children enrolled at the public school nearest to Hoboken's public housing participate in the free breakfast and lunch program the state provides for low income children. For a number of these children, the evening meal provided at The Center is the only meal they would have at the end of the day. Central to The Jubilee Center's mission is to ensure that no child in our program goes to bed hungry. Through our partnership with the New Jersey Community Food Bank, The Jubilee Center's "Kid's Café" program provides a USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) approved meal two evenings a week. We benefit greatly by the generosity of three local restaurants -- The Madison Bar & Grill, Black Bear Bar & Grill and Zack's Oak Bar & Restaurant -- who each provide a meal for all our children once a week.
Field Trips
and Community Events
Children at The Jubilee Center go on a wide array of educational and recreational field trips over the course of a year, ranging from The Liberty Science Center, to NJPAC in Newark, to Yankees Stadium, and more. Community Events over the last year have included the Jubilee Center's 5th Anniversary Potluck and the Daddy and Me "Valentines Day" Dance.
As a sponsor of the Hoboken Housing Authority's Health Fair, The Jubilee Center in partnership with AMERIGROUP held a Health and Nutrition Class for parents which was followed by a workshop lead by Urban Kitchen, offering advice on preparing inexpensive and nutritious meals for children.
The Hoboken Family Alliance continues to hold monthly birthday parties for The Center's children, insuring that no child is left uncelebrated. Birthday party coordinator Colleen Castle submitted information about these parties to Family Fun Magazine which featured a story about them and made a $5,000 grant to The Center.
Our Kids Lend a Hand
Central to building self-esteem in a child is teaching them that everyone has something to give. That is why all children attending The Jubilee Center engage in several civic outreach programs each year. The Jubilee Center children have participated in activities such as delivering handmade Thanksgiving cards to patients at Christ Hospital and holding dance performances for them. The children also held a dance performance and shared a meal with residents of The Atrium; an assisted care facility in Jersey City. The Jubilee Center have partnered with All Saints Episcopal Day School in the Empty Bowls Fundraiser, raising money, awareness and canned goods for the Hoboken Shelter, In Jesus' Name, and St. Matthews Lunch Time.
All Saints Episcopal Day School and The Jubilee Center partnered to raise funds for Heifer International, raising over $1,600 to purchase farm animals for rural families in need around the world.
Summer Program
The Jubilee Center's seven week long summer program runs from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. offering academic supplementation to help students be one step ahead for the up-coming academic year and an expanded arts and extra curricular format. The Jubilee Center alumni are employed in the summer program as student counselors, providing them with job experience and our children with peer role models. Over the course of the summer, the children raise funds by holding car washes and selling water and coffee at local commuter stops to take a week long camping trip at Camp Linwood-MacDonald. For many of these children, this is their first experience of walking in the woods, catching a frog, or paddling a canoe.
Plans for the Future
The Jubilee Center is engaged in a program assessment and has created criteria to chart objectives and measurable outcomes by which our programs may demonstrate the impact they have upon the children we serve.
Securing our
Future
The Jubilee Center has made a commitment to moving away from reliance on unpredictable government funding by creating an Individual Donor Campaign to secure our future financial stability. We are confident that our fundraising goals can be reached through contributions from our many friends and neighbors who want The Jubilee Center's doors to stay open for years to come.
If you are interested in donating your resources or your time, please see the Help Us page.
All Saints Community Service and
Development Corporation Board of Directors
Erik Aarts
Diego Chavez
Robert Conrad
Cindy Cray (Treasurer)
Rev. Geoff Curtiss (President)
Jim DiBiasi
Jack Heidenry
Glenn Hovermale
Craig Laurie
Meryl Longval
John Peterson
Kim Stoke
Diana Tully
James Wake
Jubilee Center Board of Trustees
Cindy Altberger
Lynn Cortese
Cindy Cray, Secretary/Treasurer
Rev. Geoff Curtiss, President, ASCSDC
Donna Garban
Larry Henriques, Chairman
Joe Herman
Laurie Katz
Dale Kindregan
Michael Novak
Laura Russell
James Wake
Michelle White, Executive Director
Kathleen Whittemore
Pursuant to the Americans with Disabilities Act, should you require specific aids to fully participate in our programs, please contact us at 201-792-0340. The Jubilee Center is a barrier free, wheelchair accessible facility. We can provide sign interpretation or large print materials prior to events and performances when notified 72 hours in advance.