Our Story
Jubilee helps adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities in Montgomery County, Maryland live their best lives! With nearly 50 years of experience helping people live independently, today more than 200 adults count on Jubilee for residential and housing support services. Our work promotes independence, secures housing, and connects friends.
Mission
Jubilee Association of Maryland provides opportunities and support for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities to live in and enrich their community while fulfilling their personal, family, social, and spiritual needs.
Our work is based on the dignity and worth of all people and their right to pursue happiness as full, respected members of our society. Jubilee is a faith-based organization. Our core values are based on the belief that the created universe is good, that all people are created in God’s image, and that all people are empowered.
Inclusion and Belonging
Jubilee is a human rights organization, born of a vision for the liberation and inclusion of people with disabilities. We welcome and respect the different abilities, races, backgrounds, identities, orientations, and faiths of the members of the Jubilee community. Social, racial, and economic justice are integral to our work building a more inclusive future for all.
Core values
Respect and Human Dignity: We recognize the basic humanity of all people and treat them equally and with the utmost respect, regardless of their level of ability or role in relationship to the organization.
Self-Determination: All people have the right to control their lives and resources.
Community, Mutuality, & Service: Staff and board work together, to promote an ideal of service and open communication so Jubilee can create a sense of community both within and outside the agency to enhance the lives of those we support.
Justice: We advocate for justice with and on behalf of the people we support and we are committed to serving and employing people of diverse cultures, races, religions, and economic circumstances.
Ethical Practices: Jubilee operates with integrity, insists on quality and clear financial oversight, and bases its actions on open discussion.
Spiritual Care: Jubilee actively supports the spiritual needs of the people we support and the people we employ.
Licensing & Professional Memberships
Jubilee is a:
- Licensed Organized Healthcare Provider with the Maryland Department of Health.
- Licensed provider for Housing Support Services and DDA-certified housing support specialists by the Maryland Developmental Disabilities Administration (DDA).
- Founding member of the Maryland Association of Community Services for Persons with Developmental Disabilities (MACS) a nonprofit organization dedicated to strengthening agencies to better support people with developmental disabilities and their families in their own communities.
- Awarded Interviewer Certification for Personal Outcome Measures from The Council on Quality and Leadership (CQL) for our person-centered planning team.
- Founding partner in the Maryland Direct Support Professional Training Consortium, which created the DSP II professional development training program.
- Member of the National Leadership Consortium on Developmental Disabilities, which seeks to assure the quality and commitment of the next generation of leaders for government and nonprofit organizations serving people with developmental disabilities.
- Maryland Affordable Housing Coalition member working to expand affordable, quality housing opportunities.
- National Alliance of Direct Support Professionals (NADSP) member organization.
- Member of the Inter ACC/DD coalition of Montgomery County developmental disability service providers.
- Member of the Mennonite Health Service (MHS) Alliance.
History
Founded in 1978 by members of the Hyattsville Mennonite Church who believed disability rights were civil rights, since day one Jubilee has been an industry pioneer. From the beginning, Jubilee focused on inclusion to create a better life for people with disabilities. The aim was to move people out of institutions and into homes where they could be a part of the community. Jubilee was one of the first agencies in Maryland to support adults with disabilities in their own homes. Innovation in housing has long been a Jubilee hallmark, and in 2007 Jubilee stopped purchasing group homes to prioritize supporting people where they want to live. Today, the majority of people supported by Jubilee live in apartments and houses where they are the leaseholder. For its first four decades of growth, Tim Wiens served as Jubilee’s Executive Director. Steve Keener now leads Jubilee into a future of even greater inclusion for the people we support.
