Jubilee House Ministries is one of our cohort 2025 organizations who has had the opportunity to participate in our capacity building cohort for two years, and has attended our grant writing clinic, fundraising clinic, and our legal clinic. Jubilee House Ministries is founded on the principles of compassion, inclusivity, and community empowerment, and their mission is to provide accessible training and resources that empower their community individually and collectively. They are focused on providing faith based mental health support to the community. Currently led by founder Pastor Carolyn Johnson, their work highlights on centering the spiritual needs of the community to focus on mental health for individuals and families.
Communities Rise has had the opportunity to work with Jubilee House Ministries in a multi faceted way over the course of two years. In 2024 JHM had applied to the Communities Rise Capacity building cohort and had the opportunity to participate in our program on the fundamentals of capacity building cohort. During the 2024 year they created attainable goals for their organization such as board development and recruitment. Carolyn attended monthly workshops on various capacity building topics such as fundraising, strategic planning, HR, and more. Carolyn had noted “Communities Rise has allowed us to move into a greater depth of professionalism, accountability, confidence, and that is all because of the relationship and the things that CR has offered and supported us in.” The workshops and ongoing coaching were invaluable to the development of their organization.
Through what they learned through the cohort program Jubilee House Ministries gained a better understanding on where they needed to prioritize their efforts and also spending. In the capacity building cohort program participating organizations receive a small stipend for their work. Carolyn noted with their stipend “JHM had put their money towards renting out venue spaces for the first time, digitizing their data using Jotform, it was because of the capacity building cohort we knew how to put our money back into the program.”
Jubilee House Ministries had the opportunity to work with the late Ms. Bridgette as their capacity building coach. Carolyn had shared with Bridgette that as a coach she understood the complexity and the desire to share what JHM primarily to allow the incorporation of faith into the healing process of mental health and the needs of our organization to help it grow. “Bridgette was more than just a hearing ear to us, she stepped out in action and she got us attached to the Share Foundation which helped us get funding for her programming.” Because of Ms. Bridgette, Jubilee House Ministries is able to continue their programming during this transition in the funding landscape. Ms. Bridgette was a community leader who went above and beyond to support Jubilee House Ministries during their time in the cohort.
During the 2024 cohort, Carolyn connected to our legal services at Communities Rise and had made an appointment with our in-house attorney Livio De La Cruz. With CR’s updated 2024 Nonprofit Legal Checklist, Livio walked through what the organization already had and what they still needed to be compliant. Carolyn had noted “ Livio had gone above and beyond with what he did for us. He was so patient and kind.” With the legal services at Communities Rise Jubilee House Ministries was able to confirm their legal compliance with the Secretary of State as a 501c3. Simultaneously, JHM created a new mental health program Bridge back to Marriage providing forums, panels, and discussion groups where different perspectives and lessons learned are shared along with biblical wisdom that is relevant to the concept and prospect of marriage.
Since participating in the cohort, Carolyn has been more open and equipped to do things for the organization with more confidence. The capacity building cohort instills confidence into JHM where they get to learn through the workshops on better ways to run the organization. Today completed their final year of the capacity building program, continue to participate in grant writing and fundraising clinics, and look forward to being connected with the organizational leaders they met through the 2025 cohort.
Now more than ever in these unfolding times Jubilee House Ministries is continuing to support their community with their Zoom support groups. Their current programming includes their mental health program once a month on Saturdays, their youth and family program support group, meeting of the minds, grief and support group, and their Bridge back to Marriage program. All of their programs include interactive community collaboration, round table discussions, panel discussion, and forum style support in a mental health faith based setting. You can find Jubilee House Ministries at jubileehouseministries.org or find them through their current programming.