About | jubilee-home

What is Jubilee Home?

Jubilee Home works with young men in the Durham community to create a place that bridges the gap between incarceration and full independence. Our goals as an organization balance the real social and psychological needs of our residents with an understanding of community that comes from our belief that everyone has something to contribute. Ours is an assets based approach that first recognizes each resident as unique and valuable, and works with each young man to discover his wants and needs. We accomplish our mission by:

- Doing life together in a way that celebrates diversity and creativity, and acknowledges the strengths and value of each individual.

- Creating peaceful housing for transition aged young men (17-24 years old)

- Offering therapeutic resources to empower all residents to manage any past and/or current traumas

- Providing easy access to a network of wrap around services including education, vocational training, mental health and substance abuse counseling, as well as prosocial opportunities for all residents

- Administer individually crafted life-skills curriculums for each resident based on needs and desires.

Jubilee Home is a faith-based organization, that believes to be human is to be endowed with dignity and value. Every person is more valuable than their worst moment, but under the current systems justice involved individuals are denied access to many of the social services that could help them transition back to their communities smoothly. This means that even after an individual has served the time deemed appropriate by the courts for their crime, they are still socially guilty for life and lose access to section 8 housing vouchers and possibly even SNAP benefits. These circumstances, paired with the difficulty of finding worthwhile employment with a criminal record means that many young men who want to rejoin their communities in a meaningful way can not successfully make the transition. Jubilee Home works to remove some of these initial barriers by providing stable housing, nutritious meals, and working with strong minded employers to find our residents meaningful work.

But Jubilee Home does not work only for the benefit of formerly incarcerated individuals. JH also works to connect the community and its residents to one another so that we can all benefit from the gifts of each other. The Durham community is fuller, and more diverse when young men are allowed to return and put their varied experiences to work within their neighborhoods.

History

Our origin as an organization is not exciting or extraordinary. Like many small non-profits, we began as an attempt to solve a problem – in particular the problem of suitable supportive housing options for young men returning from incarceration in North Carolina. As we develop we learn every day that our role is less about solving the problems of others and more about learning how to be part of a community of mutual kinship.

In 2011, while working in a youth detention facility, one of our co-founders witnessed two of his students do terrible things to make sure they could stay incarcerated as opposed to returning home. This loss of naivety forced him to look deeper at the options available to young men as they leave incarceration. When the research turned up a gap in options for transitional aged peoples (17-24 yrs old) the idea for Jubilee Home was born!

Now, a few years later, we recognize that we are not THE solution for supportive housing in North Carolina. Instead, we are a part a Durham community that cares deeply about these young men and is working hard to bring them back in a way that enables them to flourish on the strength of their own talents. We are so thankful to be part of such a process of reconciliation and mutuality.

Meet our Board

Dewey Williams

Dewey Williams is a minister at Mt. Level Missionary Baptist Church, in Durham, North Carolina, where he serves

with the Prison Ministry, Voices of Praise, Male Chorus, and as a teacher of the Marriage Ministry. He is an

ordained Baptist minister and served as a pastor in Denver, Colorado for ten years. For two years he served as

President of the Baptist Minister’s Conference of Metropolitan Denver. Dewey is a graduate of Duke University

Divinity School with a Master of Divinity. Additionally, Dewey did social work for twenty years in Texas, Colorado

and Durham. While serving in Denver as the Community Chairperson of Family-to-Family he helped to reshape child

protective services in Denver, Colorado, making community involvement attached to every child welfare case.

Lonnie Harris

Lonnie Harris lives in Durham, NC and is a Software Engineer at Cisco Systems, Inc., where he has worked since 1998.

Lonnie is married to Demetre Harris and they have a daughter, Alana Harris. Lonnie and Demetre work as volunteers to

expose youth to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) related careers using Lego Robotics. Lonnie teaches

Cisco Networking courses to individuals interested in obtaining Cisco Networking Certifications. Lonnie is also an

assistant middle schoolbaseball coach in Durham, NC.

Jason Redmond

I was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I am the third child of four to Joseph R and Ectoria H. Redmond. My father is a

football coach and has held several coaching jobs and that has caused my family to move around a lot. We finally

settled in Houston, Texas where I call home. I grew up a loving all sports. I played soccer growing up for various

recreation leagues and baseball in the neighborhood; however, my first love was always football. While in high school

I ran track and excelled at it also. I graduated high school in 1990 and went on to college where I graduated in four and

a half year with a bachelor in Business Management. I have just recently graduated with a Masters in Educational Leadership. I have worked in retail, insurance, and education. I am an entrepreneur by design. I believe that building a business will give an individual an opportunity to express their own voice. I look at business like art. Each artist sees a blank canvas differently. The way you create on that canvas will be what is in your heart. I look at business and I want to create something that leaves my expression on communities when I am gone.

John Collins

From the age of 13, John Collins was in trouble with law. He was either on probation, incarcerated or on parole almost

continuously throughout adolescence and most ofhis 20's. His troubles with drinking, drugs and crime continued to escalate

in spite of caring, resourceful family support. Finally, after serving multiple sentences in state and federal prisons, his

record caught up to him. Sentenced to 10 years for being an habitual felon, John took advantage of all the educational,

social, spiritual growth and recovery opportunities available. He is currently employed as a Civil Engineering CAD Designer

at the same company he went to work for on work release in 2004, has bought a home, volunteers inside prisons regularly,

and is on several executive boards of organizations involved in helping people overcome similar demons to those that plagued

him for so long. In addition to his engineering work, in 2013 John began working as the recovery coordinator for the new

University Recovery Community, a residential program to aid students of local universities as they navigate from drug and

alcohol treatment settings into the recovery community, and back into school. Most importantly, after becoming such an utterly

hopeless example of recidivism, John has not been rearrested since his release in 2006.

Amber Crispell

Amber has worked in Durham Public schools for 9 years. She has an Elementary Education Degree and has worked with

youth for many years. She has a heart for hospitality and has always wanted to open a bed and breakfast. God

has shifted the vision of a bed and breakfast into a transitional home for guys. Although Jubilee Home has been a

slower process than hoped for, hospitality ministry is becoming a reality much sooner than she ever imagined.

Amber excited to be part of the Jubilee Home Family along with her husband David and two sons.

George O'Briant

I’m humbly grateful to serve on a board that directly and positively influences the lives of people who need it the most.

In the 25 years I’ve lived in Durham, I certainly had more than my fair share of challenges and trouble. As a formerly

incarcerated person and substance use addict, I relate to the mission of the Jubilee Home of securing hope for our youth at

a critical juncture in their lives. Change is powerful. It’s amazingly rewarding to have a career in the criminal justice system

- working in case management with Durham County’s Criminal Justice Resource Center for the last 5 years. I currently

serve on the Governor’s Community Corrections Advisory Board, pursuing a degree in Human Service Technology, NC Certified

Peer Support Specialist, Certified Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Facilitator, and Business Administration Certification. Now

residing in Raleigh NC, I’m happily married to my beautiful wife, Wendy while attending & serving at Triangle Church of Christ

in Chapel Hill, NC. In addition, I’m a basketball official, do color commentary/PA announcing at sporting events, and serve as a

religious volunteer at several NC prisons. Living to serve others is the best way to live – giving back was has been giving to me.

Staff

David Crispell,

Executive Director

David graduated from Duke Divinity School with an M.Div in 2011 and is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ. His experience with young people is substantial and varied including being a youth pastor, working in Durham Public Schools, coaching multiple sports in the community, and serving as a chaplain at CA Dillon Youth Development Center. In 2012, David brought together the group of people that would become the first Jubilee Home board of directors. In early 2015, the board named David executive director and look forward to his leadership as Jubilee Home provides therapuetic housing to young people in Durham.