A Letter from our Executive Director

Dear Friend,

I write to give you an update from Jubilee Jobs and to ask for your financial assistance. We need your support today more than ever. As you likely know, on Wednesday night Mayor Bowser closed all non-essential businesses in Washington, DC. This means that hundreds of working Jubilee Jobs applicants are suddenly without an income or the possibility of work in the near future. Sadly, we knew it was coming. We knew that our applicants, who depend on marketplace jobs in the leisure and service industry, would be among those most impacted economically by the coronavirus pandemic.

Beginning in early March, Jubilee Jobs began receiving a steady stream of calls from worried applicants – hours were being cut as local businesses shut down. We heard that seasonal work was cancelled before it began. And we heard from many partner employers that new hiring would be on hold. Last Thursday we made the difficult decision to close our office to outside visitors.

Our goal at the moment is to be as present as possible to every applicant, to offer encouragement and assurance that we will help place them in a new job as soon as is possible. We suspect that in a few months our services will be greatly needed. We are planning and fundraising now for what may come.

I must also mention that we are extremely proud of the role Jubilee Jobs applicants play at this time in the city. In the past few days we have personally run into our applicants hard at work at Safeway, Harris Teeter and Trader Joe’s. We have heard from applicants working at George Washington University and Suburban Hospitals and the Stoddard Baptist Global Care nursing home. We know there are more. It is remarkable to see how the opportunities we have provided these individuals are now so urgently sustaining us all.

I close by asking you to join us in anticipation of the overwhelming job placement need that is sure to come and to support the critical role Jubilee Jobs will soon be playing in the lives of so many who have lost their jobs. We have assured applicants that we will be there for them in the near future. Will you help us fulfill that pledge?

Thank you.

Sincerely yours,

Christine Gossens, Executive Director