For the past two months, Elizabeth Gregory Home has focused on taking things just one day at a time in response to the changing world around us. One silver lining is that staff and clients alike are more resilient than ever when it comes to adapting to the challenges that COVID-19 has presented.
The following are EGH news updates we would like to share with you.
You Gave BIG & We Can’t Thank You Enough!
First and foremost, we want to officially share the BIG success of our 2020 GiveBIG campaign and extend our deepest and sincerest gratitude to everyone who showed their support of Elizabeth Gregory Home. Our community of donors and their friends & family together raised a total of $47,449 and we could not be more humbled. With our only annual fundraising event canceled this year, this show of ongoing support from our community is truly a blessing.
Our Volunteers Continue to Help From a Distance
EGH has been without in-house volunteers since March, but there is definitely no shortage of help. Every week, we have received generous offerings from community members who cook and/or order and deliver meals for us to serve. Our volunteer drivers continue to pick up and deliver our weekly food orders from Food Lifeline, while others pick up basic food supplies and paper goods. Several have assisted with administrative tasks such as entering data or assisting with mailings. Although we dearly miss our onsite volunteers, we are deeply grateful for this outpouring of vital support.
A New Strategy for Clothing Giveaway
For over a month, the EGH Day Center has been unable to offer our weekly clothing giveaway to our clients due to the public health hazards of communal clothing bins. Yet accessing clothing is treasured by women accessing services and not having it is experienced as yet another loss, particularly now that the season has changed.
Over the past two weeks, we began to accept clothing donations again from community members, including one generous donor’s gift of over one hundred pairs of shoes! Having these resources inspired EGH staff to devise a new and safer method for resuming clothing distribution. Each client interested in picking out new clothing items receives a mask and pair of gloves, and the staff assists them with sorting through clothing options. Upon trialing this approach, we found it to prove successful beyond our expectations!
Public Health’s Support & Praise
Representatives from King County Public Health did a full walkthrough of EGH in late April to evaluate the measures we have taken to keep clients safe while using the Day Center. Overall, they had great things to say about our health and safety protocols and applauded us for maintaining a calm and clean Day Center. Additionally, they provided us with two new high-tech thermometers to use when checking client temperatures at the front desk.
EGH remains strong through this time of uncertainty. We cannot predict the shape that our daily operations will take as we phase back into a ‘new normal’, but we can assure the unhoused women we serve that Elizabeth Gregory Home is committed to responding to their needs during and beyond this pandemic.
