There is no doubt that these past few months have been the most challenging of my career and may well prove to be the greatest single challenge of our generation. However, during this same time, I have also witnessed incredible generosity from our donors. Our Emmaus family, far and wide, have stepped in to support the women and men of Emmaus. Many of our team members and clients, have expressed their gratitude for every donation, prayer, delivery of essential goods, and hour of service volunteered. I am truly humbled by this unwavering support.
I wanted to take a moment to update you about how we are doing at Emmaus. Like many other non-profit organizations, we have experienced significant challenges with both our operations and finances. Yet despite these hurdles, Emmaus remains relatively stable and focused on sustaining health and hope during these wildly uncertain times.
Throughout this crisis, we have worked closely with the Missouri Department of Mental Health and local authorities to ensure the continued health and safety of our clients and team members. We have remained absolutely diligent in our work to diminish any exposure to COVID-19 for the clients we are entrusted to serve, and our heroic team members. Our work to diminish this risk has resulted in more than $500,000 in non-reimbursable expenses for our organization. We firmly believe that these decisions were necessary to flatten the curve and reduce any potential exposure to our clients and team members.
Despite the incredible work our team members have done to protect our clients, we have not escaped the harsh realities of the coronavirus. Since the initial outbreak in early March, six of our team members and four clients have tested positive for the virus, and sadly, we have had one client death.
While much of the St. Louis region has re-opened in the last two weeks, the Emmaus COVID-19 response team has made the decision to continue to shelter in place through at least June 15th. This decision was made to continue to protect the lives of our clients and staff. While COVID-19 cases continue to decline, we remain concerned that there might be an increase in the number of positive cases as restrictions continue to be lifted.
Support from our volunteers, churches, donors, and family members is more important now than ever before. We welcome your support and there are so many ways that you can help. Visit www.emmaushomes.org to access recent information about our most pressing needs. Our website also provides information about the measures we have taken to ensure client and staff safety, and our plans to move forward.
In closing, please continue to pray for all of us at Emmaus as we work to mitigate the risk to those we are entrusted to serve, and for the brave souls who care for them.
God bless,
Cindy Clark
President & CEO