The 90’s at Jubilee Jobs
By Terry Flood
Jubilee Jobs Co-Founder and first Executive Director
Jubilee Jobs began as an emergency job placement program with Jubilee Housing residents during the recession of 1981. Ten years later, poor people in our country, including people experiencing homelessness, in recovery, coming back from prison, or new to this country, were still struggling to find work. We had to keep going.
Bobby Barnes walked into the Jubilee Jobs office from Hope Village prison transition housing on July 19, 1990. We had rarely had an applicant who had been in prison. Suddenly mass incarceration was real, with vast numbers of people, especially African American men sent to prison with long sentences and minor crimes, were finally coming home.
Bobby was a kindly older gentleman who had spent his life selling drugs at 14th and U Streets. In and out of prison many times and threatened with life imprisonment without parole, Bobby was scared. A Lorton Prison volunteer suggested Jesus could help. Bobby found his Jesus along with peace of mind and an inclusive spirit of love for those “still out there” using and in prison.
He was initially hired as a housekeeper in a nursing home. But his dream job was to become an addiction counselor. When a position opened at Jubilee Jobs, we invited Bobby to try it out. He became a successful job counselor as well as team leader. Jubilee Jobs had now become an effective re-entry program.
Extraordinarily gifted people heard about the need for the poor to find jobs. They joined the Jubilee Jobs team to create Outreach to the Homeless, and an array of small business ventures including Cana Industries, City Works, and The Barnabas Fund. Volunteers personally responded to each and every one of the thousands of letters we received from prisoners around the country. The grapevine spread the news and numbers of placements grew.
Jubilee Jobs began reaching out to neighborhoods with job counselors in churches and community organizations. Groups around the country heard about the success of the job placement process and partnerships were created.
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