Waco, TX - Mayor Michael Morrison

Jubilee Center

The Jubilee Center, a multi-purpose neighborhood service facility, is located in a deteriorating neighborhood which was once a thriving area of neighborhood retail stores and restaurants surrounded by tree-lined streets with beautiful residential structures. Mission Waco, a local non-profit organization, and neighborhood residents have been working hard to take back their neighborhood, and the Jubilee Center is a focal point of that effort.

Mission Waco, which is coordinating the neighborhood revitalization, assembled the financing for Jubilee Center, with CDBG funding serving as the catalyst for contributions from other organizations and businesses. CDBG provided $125,000 for restoration of the facility and $20,000 for a youth development program. The Enterprise Community Grant provided $51,000. Several local foundations and associations provided $114,000 in grants. Local businesses donated over $110,000 in labor and materials.

The Jubilee Center, formerly a large commercial building that deteriorated into a site for drugs, prostitutes, bars and a porn theater, now includes:

• •Wings, a pre- and post-employment job training center for unemployed persons, which provides placement after graduation;
• •an after-school tutoring program for children which includes help with homework, reading and language;
• •a computer lab, available in the evenings and on weekends, which provides 30 computers loaded with literacy and English/Spanish language training materials;
• •Homestore, a discount store, which sells donated housing materials for residents to use in maintaining their homes;
• •A pay-station which neighborhood residents can use to pay personal utility and telephone bills and to access financial resources via Western Union, and an automatic teller machine;
• •a Business Resource Center which provides incubator assistance to start-up businesses;
• •a Theater/Meeting Center which includes a theater for stage presentations, arts training, production training, and seating for meetings and seminars;
• •retail space; and
• •a teen clubhouse which is open late on weekends for supervised activities.

Working with public and private organizations, educational groups, foundations, churches and neighbors, Mission Waco's efforts have led to other positive developments in the immediate area. Down the block from Jubilee Center, the McLennan Community College has started a small engine repair training center; Kimberly Clark has donated a new playground; and across the street, Habitat for Humanity is building its 45^th house.

Contact: Bernadette Mitchell, Community Development Administrator, (254) 750-5650

The United States Conference of Mayors

J. Thomas Cochran, Executive Director
1620 Eye Street, NW, Washington, DC 20006
Telephone (202) 293-7330, FAX (202) 293-2352

Copyright ©1999, U.S. Conference of Mayors, All rights reserved.