The Jubilee House Community (JHC) is an non-sectarian faith based community that has been focused on service ministry since its beginnings in 1979 in North Carolina (USA) where the JHC, Inc. was organized.
In the 1980s, the JHC's ministry was primarily to the poor and homeless in North Carolina. Projects included the creation and maintenance of shelters for the permanently homeless (street people), those caught in emergency housing crises, and battered women. In addition to these three specific shelters, related work included a Habitat for Humanity project, development of a local soup kitchen, medical and legal advocacy work on behalf of the poor, and community education on peace and justice issues.
During this time, the JHC ranged in size from the five who began the Community to as many as 23 members. Many members came as long-term volunteers for between one and two years.
In the 1990s, the focus of the work of the JHC shifted to Central America.
The shelter and related North Carolina service work were transferred to another nonprofit to be continued, and in 1993 the JHC founded the Center for Development in Central America to address the immense poverty that is choking much of Central America. In 1994, the Jubilee House Community's five adults and three children settled in Ciudad Sandino, Nicaragua, to work with the help of many in the United States, who later founded Friends of CDCA.
The work of the JHC - the CDCA - is supported by tax-deductible donations of time, resources, ideas, and funding from a wide variety of sources... individuals, churches and church groups, Central American interest groups, and university work/volunteer projects, etc. It continues to be a partnership working in service, responding to the needs of the poor as defined by them, as a global community committed to justice.