The Family Place has made the difficult decision to cancel the Texas Trailblazer Awards Luncheon this year due to COVID-19 and concern for the safety of our supporters and staff. We explored many options before concluding that we cannot host a large event this year. We depend heavily on special events to fund our lifesaving and life-changing services for victims of family violence.
As frontline employees and an essential business, The Family Place has stayed open during the pandemic from day one, taking new clients when other shelters were not, and providing both shelter and counseling services to save lives. We take clients into our emergency shelters regardless of symptoms. Once housed, we get them testing if appropriate, medical care if needed, and isolation if necessary. When we are at capacity, we put hotline callers facing lethal situations into hotel rooms. We will not turn them away. Our on-staff nurses monitor clients daily and provide medical care as needed. We are providing counseling services, following social distancing practices, over the phone and through video calls and are offering new telehealth groups for adults and children using a HIPPA-approved platform that accommodates 10 callers at a time.
All of these innovations, extra cleaning and personal protective equipment mean that our expenses are rising at the same time we are anticipating decreases in individual contributions, non-government and government grants, special events, program fees and Resale Shop revenue.
For these reasons, we need your help now more than ever and hope you will make a donation to The Family Place. Your donation will be 100 percent tax deductible and will allow us to help thousands of victims in need.
Thank you so much for your consideration of this heartfelt request at a time of great need.