City staff and representatives of Jubilee Reach briefed the Bellevue City Council on April 15 about Jubilee in the Community, a volunteer program that pairs resident volunteers with Bellevue homeowners who need exterior home repairs due to age, disability or financial hardship.

Serena Miller, Bellevue’s Keep Bellevue Beautiful coordinator, said the program — formerly called Day of Sharing and Caring — helps homeowners who may be isolated, elderly or in financial distress with projects such as painting, yard work and fence repair. The program provides application materials in multiple languages and mailed 2,000 application packets in March; staff reported more than 50 applications had been received by that mailing.

Randy Ng, Jubilee Reach executive director, and Ken Carpenter, Jubilee’s director of community care, described recent cases where volunteers cleared yards, painted homes and constructed fences for grieving families and long‑term residents. Carpenter said the program’s benefit goes beyond physical repairs: volunteers also provide social support and reduce isolation for recipients.

Program data presented to council: Jubilee Reach completed 124 projects in 2024 with contributions from 953 volunteers; in 2008, 16 projects were completed in the program’s early years. Staff encouraged eligible homeowners to apply by the June 30 deadline; paper applications are available at community centers and City Hall and online forms are provided in English, Korean, simplified and traditional Chinese, Spanish, Russian, Japanese and Vietnamese.

No council action was requested; the briefing was informational.