30 years of warmth and food
The Trinity Jubilee Center, now a secular non-profit, was originally a project of the Trinity Episcopal Church. Trinity Church had opened at the current location in 1882. A century later, in the 1980s, the Church changed the focus of its ministry and opened the doors even wider. The Urban Ministry Training Center (UMTC) began to take shape in the early 1990’s in the hall beneath the church. Three meals a week were cooked by staff, volunteers, and nuns; emergency food filled the pantry. By the late 1990s the Church was bursting at the seams with not only the UMTC but also Faithworks (later called Outsourceworks), a welfare-to-work program.
The Bishop’s Task Force on Trinity recommended that the UMTC and Faithworks become independent non-profit organizations. In 2001 the center was recognized as a Jubilee Center of the Episcopal Church, the first in Maine, and was renamed the Trinity Jubilee Center. Also in 2001, the Trinity Jubilee Center (TJC) was officially incorporated as a 501(c)3 non-profit. The Center was now a separate, non-religious organization, although the Trinity Church continued to allow the Center to use the first floor of the building.
The Center continues to grow…
Becoming a United Way Agency and hiring its first full-time Executive Director. The Center’s day shelter became the Warming Center for the city of Lewiston. As refugees began to arrive in the city, the Refugee Integration Program was created to best meet their unique needs. The Soup Kitchen expanded to serve hot lunches six days a week. The Resource Center, already offering services including assistance with applications, phone, fax, and internet access, and a mailing address for homeless patrons, expanded again with the addition of the Free Clinic, providing medical attention to those in need.
The Center is now open six days a week and offers five programs: the Meals Program, Food Pantry, Day Shelter, Resource Center, and Refugee Integration Program. More than 1,000 people are served by these programs every week.
