Recent changes within the Emmaus Homes organization have impacted the community of Marthasville in many ways.The announcement to close the Marthasville campus and move clients to “community homes” was met with much emotion and a hope that the home for the developmentally disabled would not vanish from the area.“The most important message is that we are expanding and continue to grow,” said Chief Development Officer Lisa Drier. “We really wanted to stay in Marthasville. This part of the world has been so supportive for 120 years. We want to continue to invest in this community because they have invested in us.”Emmaus Homes recently moved its corporate offices from its campus on Highway D to 16020 Highway 47 in Marthasville, previously occupied by Citizens Bank. Drier reports that clients, their families and the Emmaus staff have now gained a “fully accessible” facility to meet and work.Renovations have been taking place for the last six months, reports Drier. The facility includes two large conference rooms, several small rooms for family meetings, and several “touchdown” areas where staff can stop by the facility and work at a station with computer hookups. The facility will house a dozen full-time employees.In addition, the organization has opened five community homes in Warren County with three more to open within the next six months. Community homes are located in Marthasville, Truesdale, Wright City and Warrenton.Recent changes include the closing and sale of the St. Charles campus and plans to close the 650-acre historic Marthasville campus by 2020.“We have begun transitioning clients out,” said Drier. “We will close larger buildings that clients did not use and larger buildings that had office space. The cost to maintain the campus each year was more than $400,000.”Drier said the organization has taken great pains to work with the family of each client currently living at the Emmaus Homes. They question each client as to where they would prefer to live or if they had roommates in mind.Up to 95 percent of the community homes are owned by “angel investors.” The investors often have a prior relationship and history with Emmaus Homes and offer their properties as rental homes for the clients.Community homes typically have three to four bedrooms and two bathrooms in a ranch-style building for ease to the clients. Each home houses three to four residents. Direct support professionals and a home manager staff the home 24/7.Drier said many of the clients work, volunteer, attend church services and participate in other activities in their chosen community.As the program goals shift, employees are needed.“We have about 150 open positions,” said Drier. “As we open new homes, we need new staff. I would encourage people to view several videos on our website to see what working at Emmaus is like.”Drier said people were hesitant with the plan to move their family members into the community at first, but the clients are proud of their new homes and seem to be adjusting quickly.“Clients are thriving,” she added.Linda and Roy Mueller, parents of client Peter Navetta, admit their first impression of the new plan was “terror.”“We waited for three years to get Peter into the Emmaus campus,” said Linda Mueller. “It turned his life around. It saved his life.”Peter spent a dozen years at the Marthasville campus, where he was active in Special Olympics, the equestrian program, volunteering at a food pantry, helping with Meals on Wheels and participating in pottery classes.Mueller attributes her son’s transition coordinator with the successful move to a community home. She said the transition coordinator helped the family find appropriate roommates, a house that he liked and a community where he felt at home.Peter now lives with two other men in a community home in Wright City where his neighbors are friendly. Knowing that TV was essential for Peter, Mueller said his caseworker had it all ready when he moved in.“We feared the worst,” she said. “But they really listened to us as parents. This has much exceeded my expectations.”Boonslick Regional Planning Commission released a report in May analyzing the economic impact on Warren County. They reported on four homes purchased, with seven employees added at each home.“Based on calculations of housing and employee wages, the first year economic impact in the greater Warren County area is between $1.36 million and $1.56 million,” said the report.The report estimates another $48,000 of economic impact on the local economy due to purchases by clients in the local stores.Boonslick Regional Planning Commission finds the Emmaus Homes plan helps “promote regional prosperity, foster a diverse economy, assist in the creation of jobs, coordinate efforts of individuals, organizations, and private industry, and private industry concerned with economic development, and improve the overall living conditions in Lincoln, Montgomery and Warren counties.”For more information about Emmaus Homes visit emmaushomes.org.Emmaus Homes