All of us have experienced profound changes in the last few months. No one is more susceptible to this change than our children. In-school teaching abruptly concluded early and opportunities for summer enrichment became scarce. Learning for the most vulnerable among us is a challenge during the best of times. During the pandemic, the education of our children becomes even more difficult. 

According to The New York Times, “research suggests that by September, most students will have fallen behind where they would have been if they had stayed in classrooms, with some losing the equivalent of a full school year’s worth of academic gains. Racial and socioeconomic achievement gaps will most likely widen because of disparities in access to computers, home internet connections and direct instruction from teachers.” The children that we serve at Emmaus House suffer the consequences of these disparities everyday. That’s why our work, in partnership with our local schools, is so vital.

Pivoting in the Pandemic

Sadly, we had to cancel our annual summer Children’s Defense Fund Freedom Schools® program. So, we went virtual. I am grateful to our Director of Education, Ann Fowler, who had the vision and skills to create an innovative program to keep the learning moving forward for many of the children that we serve. I am also grateful to you, our supporters, who make this kind of creativity possible through your commitment and generous contributions.

For six weeks, we conducted a virtual reading program. This program, called Vision 2020, engaged 40 rising second and third-grade students from the Barack and Michelle Obama Academy. It was a tremendous success! The scholars read a total of 901 books, logged more than 10,700 minutes of reading, completed weekly art projects, learned motivational songs, and worked on daily lessons with their tutors.

Members of The Cathedral of St. Philip and The Episcopal Church of the Epiphany and countless others donated books to the program through gift cards at the Cathedral Book Store, Brave and Kind Books, and Little Shop of Stories. Because of these donations, we were able to give children more physical books of their choice to build home libraries and encourage a love of reading. It was heartwarming to see how excited the scholars were to receive books every Friday with their favorite characters and topics of interest to them. Each week, members of St. Martin in the Fields Episcopal Church and School supplied groceries to the families of students in the program, which was much appreciated.

Words from our Neighbors

Ayana Cottman is a Peoplestown resident and a member of the Emmaus House Advisory Board. Her daughter Maia took part in Vision 2020. Here is what Ayana had to say:

“Thanks for everything this summer! Maia has definitely grown and blossomed. She has even more confidence in reading, and I know it’s due to this program. Seeing her finish those Helen Ruffin books and challenge herself to accomplish those goals has been amazing. Thank you again!"

On Facebook, Ayana wrote:

“So proud to be a part of the Barack and Michelle Obama Academy and Emmaus House community. Serving on the Emmaus House board, I hear about the wonderful programming, but this year I was able to experience it first-hand!! Maia had a great six-week virtual summer reading experience where she read 24 chapter books!! She is now even more motivated to read and participate in her school’s Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl! Thanks to the amazing Emmaus House staff, Greg Cole and Ann Fowler, as well as Principal Robin Christian (principal at the Barack and Michelle Obama Academy)."

Peoplestown resident and parent Alicia DeCriscio wrote:

"The virtual summer reading program has been so good for our family. The structure and one-on-one sessions have been so helpful in keeping Samuel’s skills fresh and ready for second grade.  We’ve also enjoyed the art supplies and treats which the whole family could enjoy.  This pandemic has been hard on us all; thank you, Emmaus House, for bringing light into the community."

We are creating fall programming that will help to close the gap for children for whom out-of-classroom learning is a challenge. With your support, we can continue to change the odds for the children that we serve in Peoplestown and beyond. 

Greg Cole
Executive Director

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This news article has been reposted from The Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta.

Imagine a scenario where you need medical attention but must choose between going to the doctor or feeding your family. Or another situation in which a single trip to the emergency room ruined your credit rating and sent you into a debilitating debt from which you may never recover. Now imagine being able to prevent such scenarios. We can!

The Cathedral of St. Philip is partnering with Emmaus House to buy the medical debt of residents of some of our most financially vulnerable communities. This debt reduction will give struggling families a fresh start, allowing them to receive critical medical attention and support on their journey toward financial stability. In partnership with the non-profit RIP Medical Debt, we seek to forgive $11.5 million in medical debt from our neighbors in and around Peoplestown. Every dollar donated forgives $100 of medical debt. Your gift of any amount will help us to reach our goal of $115,000 to purchase and forgive the medical debt of families in the communities served by Emmaus House.

Emmaus House works to improve the economic and social well-being of the residents of Peoplestown and surrounding neighborhoods. It provides resources to build long-term, economic self-sufficiency for individuals and families in crisis through a variety of social services. However, no matter how hard some families work to break the cycle of generational poverty, crushing medical debt can be virtually impossible to overcome. Your support of this unique campaign will help us reach 4,800 households in south Atlanta to help break this debilitating cycle.

Now imagine a scenario when a resident of Peoplestown opens an envelope telling them that a third party has paid for and erased their medical debt with no strings attached – they owe nothing and have no tax penalty. Families can pay mortgages, utility bills, put food on their tables, and, most importantly, remain in the neighborhood.

Every gift will make a difference. Please join us today in fellowship with our Cathedral family, our neighbors in Peoplestown, and our partners at Emmaus House to make a significant difference in our city.

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Thanks to the generosity of several Cathedral families, the first $40,000 in donations will be matched dollar for dollar.

Contributing is easy: online at www.cathedralATL.org/medicaldebt or mail a check to the Cathedral of St. Philip, 2744 Peachtree Rd., NW, Atlanta, GA 30305 (with “Medical Debt Relief” in memo line).

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Please join us today in fellowship with our Cathedral family, our neighbors in Peoplestown, and our partners at Emmaus House to make a significant difference in our city.

Thank you!

The Rev. Canon Lauren Holder
Cathedral Canon for Community & Education

Haven Long
Cathedral Treasurer; Emmaus House Board Member

Greg Cole
Emmaus House Executive Director

Reflecting On Last Week's NPU-V Meeting

One of our core commitments at Emmaus House is to elevate the voices of the community. We choose to listen to and support those in the neighborhoods that we serve, recognizing their wisdom and passion. After the police killing of Rayshard Brooks on June 12, we have listened to our community leaders as they have called for the reimagining of policing in our neighborhoods. We stand in solidarity with those who have suffered too many losses and who live in fear that they could be next.

Last Friday, we were honored to take part in a town hall and solidarity march with our friends who live in the neighborhoods of NPU-V. Several of our advisory board members are community leaders here in Peoplestown, and we stand with them as they demand that city leaders listen to their voices. I am grateful for Columbus Ward and Chris Lemon, who not only provide leadership to Emmaus House but who work tirelessly to make Peoplestown a more equitable place for all residents.  

One of our funding partners likes to say that we are not here to help children to overcome the odds. Instead, we are here to change the odds. Emmaus House does a lot of crisis intervention work, offering rent and utility assistance as well as food from our food pantry. We know that this work is essential. However, we also know that it is not enough. We need to engage on a deeper level that will bring about more profound change and will create opportunities for all people to thrive. 

At this moment in our nation’s history, we must come to terms with the racial injustice that oppresses Black people and robs them of opportunity. Many of the actions that we have seen in the past few weeks are a good start, but they are not enough. When the dust clears and people turn to other challenges, will we still have the energy and desire to dismantle the evil of structural racism? What will we who are white give up so that we can move towards a more just and equitable world? These are challenging questions that demand answers. 

For those of us who consider ourselves people of faith, what does it mean for us to proclaim that God creates each person in God’s image? What does it mean to proclaim that God calls us to respect the dignity of every human being? If we believe these two statements, then we have no choice but to be antiracists, making conscious choices based on careful reflection and unbiased analysis. As Ibram Kendi says, “to be antiracist is a radical choice in the face of history, requiring a radical reorientation of our consciousness.” Are we ready to make that choice? It will not be easy, and we will need to choose repeatedly. At Emmaus House, we commit to this journey, wherever it takes us. We invite you to join us as we move forward together.

On Friday, June 26, join our Executive Director, Greg Cole, and Emmaus House Advisory Board members at the NPU-V Town Hall and Solidarity Walk. The meeting will begin at 6 p.m. at 4 Corners Park (1040 Crew St. SW, Atlanta, GA 30315) to discuss our elected officials’ response to the NPU-V community demands and steps for advancing our community. Read our statement of support here as we continue to advocate for our neighbors and amplify their voices.

The meeting will conclude with a solidarity walk to Wendy’s for prayer over our community and the family of Rayshard Brooks.

This week, again, we find ourselves heartbroken and devastated by the death of another black man at the hands of a system meant to protect and to serve. This occurrence hits very close to home; Rayshard Brooks was shot and killed in Peoplestown, our own community. 

This, of course, has had a profound effect on our neighbors and friends. Members of our staff and volunteers call this neighborhood home. In this time of deep pain for our community, we re-commit to listening to and lifting up their voices. 

Last weekend, in response to Rayshard Brooks’ death, representatives of NPU-V, of which Peoplestown is a part, met to develop a thorough list of demands to present to Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms. I was part of that conversation and I pledged, on behalf of Emmaus House, to support resident-led initiatives and to help amplify the voices of community members. 

Included in the list of demands is the passing of the proposed Hate Crime bill, banning the use of chokeholds by police, requiring a significant presence of community members on the hiring committee for the next police chief, and extending Academy training to include community policing engagement. (Read the full list of demands on the NPU-V site.)

We urge the Mayor to listen carefully and consider the voices of the people who live in this community. Emmaus House stands with them. We echo the voice of Bishop Rob Wright, who called in his statement this week for the reimagining of policing in Atlanta and our country.

We will continue to advocate for our neighbors until the scourge of racism is eliminated from our country. We will work towards equity, justice, and peace for our Black brothers and sisters, and we will continue to proclaim that Black Lives Matter.

Greg Cole

Executive Director

Emmaus House in the Time of COVID-19: Responding to the Needs of our Neighbors

As we spend time this week in grief and reflection, our daily work continues. (Read Greg Cole’s full statement on current events here.) This week, we launched a new literacy program for rising second and third-grade students at the Barack and Michelle Obama Academy. 

We invite you to read about this program below as you reflect upon the systemic racism and generational poverty that affect so many members of our community.  

At Emmaus House, we stand for justice and equity. Please join us, teach us, stand with us.

Part 3: Education

Three young students from Barack and Michelle Obama Academy in Peoplestown will be among the forty participants in Vision 2020, an online reading program sponsored by Emmaus House this summer. 

Each has a different learning challenge. Each has seen major results from past reading programs.

One student had severe attention issues. Reading online with a paraprofessional calmed him and helped him to concentrate. One was a kindergartner in danger of having to repeat his kindergarten year. Through last summer’s Emmaus House program, he caught up with his class and became a top student in first grade. The third presented behavior challenges. When his teacher discovered that he enjoyed superhero books and could read at two grade levels above his age, she encouraged him and his behavior improved.

The progress made by the boys shows how much difference a good reading program can make, especially when progress can be lost over the summer due to no follow-up and no access to new reading material, an occurrence known as the “summer slide.” 

Emmaus House will offer Vision 2020 from June 1 to July 10 to rising 2nd and 3rd graders. The goal is to provide reading enrichment to children who otherwise might have no opportunity to continue academic work over the summer.

The online program is a COVID-19 response to replace the past in-person summer Children’s Defense Fund Freedom Schools® program sponsored by Emmaus House. “We had to do something safe for the neighborhood and safe for the children,” said Ann Fowler, director of education services at Emmaus House.

Learning to read is life-changing for a child, said Brittany Young, reading specialist at the Obama Academy and one of the teachers who will be working with Vision 2020 this summer. “When students begin reading, they can make a connection with something that interests them,” she said. “They also develop vocabulary and storytelling skills. It increases their creativity.”

Teachers will do interest inventories at the beginning of the program to learn what kind of books each child might enjoy most, she said. 

Besides daily online reading with mentors, all the children will receive a book of their choice each Friday. To provide the books, Emmaus House is partnering with Little Shop of Stories, an independent bookstore in downtown Decatur. 

“The work of providing books to all children is urgent,” said Fowler of Emmaus House.

Research shows that students who have books in their homes perform better academically, she said. She cited a 2001 study that found that the ratio of books to children in middle-income neighborhoods is thirteen books per child. In low-income neighborhoods, the ratio is one book for 300 children. Another study found that giving children twelve books to take home over the summer resulted in gains equal to summer school for lower-income children, and had twice the impact of summer school for the poorest of those children. Research also shows that academic gains are larger when children are allowed to select their own books.

“This book gap is easier to erase than the more complex barriers involved in poverty,” Fowler said.

A home full of books makes a difference beyond literacy, she said. Researchers found a correlation between reading and understanding of mathematical concepts, and even between reading and the ability to use technology to communicate.

Teachers are concerned that the reading gap has widened during seclusion as a result of COVID-19. Whereas children in higher-income neighborhoods are spending time in homes with books and computers, children from lower-income families are less likely to have those resources.

Veteran teacher Shirley Freeman, who will be working with the Emmaus House  program this summer, saw the effects reading can make in the kindergartener who was almost retained. He came from a home with several children and a mother who worked long hours. “It was a case of older children looking after younger children,” Freeman said. 

Last summer at Freedom School, the “light bulb went on” and the little boy realized he could read.

“He just grabbed books and took off,” she said. “He really blossomed.”

The result was a good student and a happy teacher.

“That’s the reward,” Freeman said. “That makes everything else worth it.”

TO SUPPORT VISION 2020 WITH BOOKS, you can buy a gift card from Little Shop of Stories and indicate Emmaus House as the recipient. Select “store pick up” and Little Shop of Stories will hold the cards for Emmaus House. Donations of any amount are welcome, but $10 will buy a paperback and $15 will buy a hardback. Additionally, St. Martin’s Episcopal Church will provide a bag of groceries with the book delivery to each participating family.

Our hearts are heavy this week as we consider the state of our nation. The COVID-19 pandemic has shed a glaring light on the health and economic disparities that affect people of color. Now, amid this crisis, we find ourselves confronting another crisis, one that has been around for far too long—the systemic racism that devalues African American lives. Tragically, people continue to die at the hands of those with power, both police officers and civilians. Our nation is on edge. We grieve the senseless loss of life that results when we do not value every human being equally.

At Emmaus House, we too struggle with a way forward. We condemn the killing of our African American brothers and sisters as well as the inequities that deny opportunity. Our values statement reads, “Emmaus House stands for justice and equity, rooted in faith and a deep respect for the dignity of every human being.” We believe that this statement is aspirational. So, we feel challenged at this moment to consider our response to the pain around us. We do not have easy answers or a list of simple solutions. And we know that words are cheap and do not alone change anything.

So, we commit to the demanding work of reflection and listening. We continue to examine how we do our work to make sure that we live according to the values to which we aspire. We approach our work with humility, knowing we do not have all the answers.

As we reflect, our daily work continues. Yesterday, we launched a new literacy program for rising second and third-grade students at the Barack and Michelle Obama Academy. We know that summer reading loss is a significant challenge that sets many children even further behind at school. That loss will be even more severe this year, given the lack of class-time brought about by the pandemic.

We reflect, and we work. And we invite you to join us as we endeavor to create a world where all people experience justice and peace.

Emmaus House in the Time of COVID-19: Responding to the Needs of our Neighbors

Part 2: Food

Navigating Community Needs
Hunger and access to food is consistently an issue for the neighbors of Emmaus House. For many families, benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, better known as Food Stamps, routinely run out before the end of the month. With no major supermarkets in the area, residents have to drive several miles to shop or pay high prices for limited goods in nearby convenience stores. Those without automobiles must carry groceries home on a bus or walk blocks with heavy bags—an especially challenging situation for older residents.

Over the years, Emmaus House has always been there to tide neighbors over, providing groceries from its food pantry to supplement other benefits.

Now, with restrictions in place to avoid COVID-19, the challenges are even greater. Other food pantries in the area have closed. MARTA has reduced bus service. People have lost jobs or had their work hours cut back. And Emmaus House could no longer welcome pantry shoppers into its building to choose their food.

“Overnight we became one of few places in our area still open,” said Adam Seeley, director of social services at Emmaus House. “We had to evaluate our own position—how could we have staff and volunteers serve people? We had to create a whole new model of logistical services. Client and volunteer safety are the top priority instead of efficiency.”

Now clients choose from a list of available products and tell volunteers their choices. The volunteers pull groceries from the shelves, fill bags, and pass them through open doors or windows. People who need food are asked to make appointments to prevent crowding at the facilities, although some walk-ins are served.

To accommodate the greater needs caused by the virus and the limited assistance available, Emmaus House has temporarily suspended requirements for proof of residency and geographic limits on who is eligible for services.

The adjustment hasn’t always been smooth, Seeley said. One complication was that, just before the COVID-19 restrictions were put in place, the Atlanta Community Food Bank—the source of much of Emmaus House’s food supply—was closed for a move into new facilities. 

Even though the Emmaus House pantry had to stop services for a week and a half in March because supplies were depleted and the food bank was shut down, statistics show how much demand jumped. “Things just exploded,” Seeley said. Volunteers handed out 6,200 pounds of food to 184 households in less than three weeks, up from 4,600 pounds of food in all of February. In April, the numbers rose to 12,400 pounds.

“Our clients have been really understanding and patient as we’ve made changes as we go along,” Seeley said. “That’s never ideal. You like to have a plan in place before the need for it arises.”

Fortunately, he said, volunteers, donors, and agency partners have come through to help.

Helping Hands
Parishioners from St. Martin’s Episcopal Church are filling bags, which they call Bags of Hope, to bring every week. Other groups and individual families are making donations. And Carver Market in nearby Historic South Atlanta is also selling a version of Bags of Hope for Emmaus House. Church of the Epiphany formed a partnership with Carver Market to sell a version of Bags of Hope for Emmaus House. (The market itself is a model neighborhood resource, founded by Focused Community Strategies (FCS), a nonprofit organization to provide healthy foods and fresh produce at reasonable prices and to provide jobs to neighborhood residents.)

Likewise, organizations are helping to get food out to people who can’t come in for themselves. Welcoming Atlanta, a program of Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms’ Office of Immigrant Affairs, assists new residents from other countries whose language barriers make it impossible for them to call, make an appointment, and communicate with English-speaking pantry volunteers. To serve the immigrant population, Seeley and Emmaus House executive director Greg Cole bought beans, rice, and tortillas in bulk at the Atlanta State Farmers Market so that the pantry could provide culturally appropriate food.

Innovative Solutions for Disadvantage and Disability, Inc. which works with grandparents raising grandchildren with special needs, makes sure their clients get the food they need from the Emmaus House pantry. And the 5-5-5ers, a homegrown neighborhood group in Peoplestown, receive food at the Emmaus House pantry for their neighbors and members who can’t get out.

The 5-5-5ers are a steady force in the Emmaus House community. Several years ago, five women launched a group for people 55 and older. They planned to meet five times to see whether the organization would gel. They’ve been meeting and working together for neighborhood causes ever since. 

Jane Ridley, 75, was out of breath, just arriving home from making a grocery delivery. “I have a back problem, but I do what I can,” she said. Others, she said, do much more.

Rachel Harris, 71, has been on the receiving end. “5-5-5 is bringing food to me,” she said. “It’s slow for me to get around.”

While Emmaus House is making sure its neighbors have food, its neighbors are helping Emmaus House create and maintain community, even in times of pandemic.

Volunteer Mark Laster lives in the neighborhood, works part-time at a local funeral home, and helps run the food pantry in his off time. “We try to make sure we have what people need,” he said. “I try to make sure they’re happy and they make sure I’m happy. We’re like one big family. Customers, too.”

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To buy a $35 Bag of Hope from Carver Market:

Go to www.carvermarket.com/emmaushouse, and select the "carry out" option. Emmaus House will pick up the bag. The grocery items include cereal, cereal bars, macaroni and cheese, flour, canned tuna and salmon, rice, beans, black-eyed peas, cleaning supplies, laundry detergent, and bath soap. Emmaus House will distribute the bags to individuals and families in the Peoplestown area.
Contact Ann Fowler at 404-525-5948, ext 27 if you have questions.

Emmaus House in the Time of COVID-19: Responding to the Needs of Our Neighbors

Part 1: Housing

New Challenges

Amber Middlebrooks found herself in need of help in the wake of a job loss resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. She was furloughed from her position with an insurance company and couldn’t pay the rent on her apartment.

Emmaus House has been there for decades for people like Amber who need help. The Episcopal mission has worked on the southside of Atlanta since the 1960s, serving residents of Peoplestown and surrounding areas. One of its missions is to help people stay in their homes through assistance with rent, mortgage payments, property taxes, and utilities. For now, during the virus threat, utility cut-offs and evictions are suspended, but if people don’t keep up with their bills, they will be far behind and at immediate risk when the ban is lifted, said Emmaus House executive director Greg Cole. “We’re helping people not to get so far behind that they can’t dig themselves out.”

Nia Miller, a single mother with two children, was unemployed last year, not knowing where to turn. A friend took her to Emmaus House, where she was connected with a job-training program and job-search network. Soon she was working for a cosmetic store. 

But with the threat of the coronavirus keeping people home-bound, women were no longer shopping for lipstick and eyeshadow. In March, Miller was laid off. She had been living paycheck-to-paycheck, and “I was really struggling,” she said.

This time she knew where to go. Emmaus House helped her pay the power bill, and, she got food from the mission’s food pantry.

“I’d been doing for myself for so long, it took me a while not to feel guilty,” Miller said. “But things were kind of falling down around my head. I thought about my two children. Sometimes you do need help to get where you’re trying to go.”

Many people seeking help these days work in the service industry, such as restaurants and stores, said Emmaus House case manager Tanisha Corporal.

A demographic study of the residents around Emmaus House shows that 16 percent work in retail and another 15 percent in “accommodation,” such as hotels. Those businesses have been hard-hit by the orders to shelter-in-place. The same study shows that even before the virus hit, unemployment in the Peoplestown-Mechanicsville area around Emmaus House was almost ten percent, three times the national average, and that median household income was only $23,711, compared to $60,293 nationally. The community – with many people already stretched financially – was being disproportionately affected by the economic implications of COVID-19.

Things Looking Up
There is some good news, however.

Emmaus House’s funding for housing and utilities will get a big boost soon when a $157,000 grant from the Stadium Neighborhoods Community Trust Fund hits the bank account. The fund was established to help the neighborhoods around the old Turner Field baseball stadium, sold to Georgia State University for $30 million in 2017. Some $5 million was designated to support projects to benefit the neighborhoods around the stadium, including those served by Emmaus House.

The sale brought with it the promise of new mixed-use developments, but many long-time residents of the Emmaus House service area regard the plans with skepticism. Upscale coffee shops and micro-breweries will do little, they say, to benefit people struggling to hold onto their homes and pay utilities. Squeezed between burgeoning businesses around the stadium and the popular BeltLine, a $4.8 billion, 22-mile project to convert old railway rights of way into a pedestrian- and bike-friendly trail, residents are finding their once-dormant community a popular place for higher-income families and singles who relish the new amenities and the brief commute to downtown. With each fancy apartment complex and cul-de-sac of new houses to appeal to the influx of new residents comes the danger of rising property taxes for people who have spent their lives in their homes.

Emmaus House staff and volunteers are working out a process to maximize use of the stadium trust funds, said Corporal. At the same time, for the foreseeable future, they have to give people the housing and utilities assistance they need without putting applicants and staff at risk through in-person contact. 

“We’ve come up with an online form that clients can access,” she said.

Using the information on the online application, the Emmaus House staff verifies the applicants’ residences, the amount they owe, and to whom, then follows up with a telephone interview and an appointment to drop off documentation.

Everything seems more complicated under the COVID-19 threat. But the help is more crucial than ever.

Help from Emmaus House “means everything to me,” said Amber Middlebrooks. “If it weren’t for them, I would probably get an eviction notice.”