Legal Update
Former Staff Sentenced
On Thursday, September 18, 2025, Joelle Fouse was sentenced to 40 months in prison with 3 years of supervised release to follow. Additionally, Fouse was ordered to pay full restitution for the amount she stole.
As a nonprofit dedicated to the dignity and safety of vulnerable individuals for more than 50 years, her violation of trust and predatory actions against our staff, volunteers, and residents is unfathomable.
We are deeply appreciative of the diligence and commitment to justice demonstrated by investigators, the prosecution, and the judge who oversaw this case and guided it to its conclusion.
Furthermore, we are incredibly grateful and humbled by the outpouring of love and support from our volunteers, partners, donors, and the families we serve.
What Happened?
In October of 2024, a former employee was charged and ultimately pleaded guilty to embezzling money from our organization. This employee lied to previous leadership and abused her position to steal from us. As investigators have shown, she meticulously orchestrated her deception at every level. She created fraudulent financial reports, doctored receipts, and fabricated presentations to the board—all designed to paint a false picture while diverting money to herself.
What's Next?
Our team has taken several steps to ensure our organization is never again a victim of a crime like this. We have engaged a new auditor. We also worked with a top St. Louis forensic accounting firm to implement new controls, processes and procedures, such as utilizing a third-party administrator to handle payroll and reimbursements.
We take great pride in our work and feel deeply betrayed; however, we have important work to do, and recent accomplishments point to a continued bright future for Promise Community Homes and the people we serve. A few examples of recent and upcoming accomplishments are:
- In August 2025, we opened a new home in Jefferson County, an example of our expansion to meet the growing housing need in the St. Louis region.
- In 2026-2027, we will build an all-new, multi-unit apartment building, bringing much-needed additional housing for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) in St. Louis County. This new model for Promise Community Homes (PCH) will be designed around each resident’s unique needs, ensuring that everyone—regardless of ability—has a home.
- Our three-year strategic plan is currently underway and will shape how our organization approaches growth, sustainability, and the services we provide to our residents.
- PCH will continue exploring opportunities to educate contractors, developers, and families on the importance of thoughtful design that makes every home not only accessible, but truly supportive of the unique needs of individuals with IDD.
Our Commitment
Nearly 300 adults with IDD call a Promise house their forever home, living independently with dignity and choice for as long as they so choose. This heinous crime has been a dark chapter, but it does not diminish the more than 50-year legacy created by families dedicated to securing safe, sustainable futures for their children, nor the commitment of those who carry on that mission today.
With this legacy in mind, and your steadfast support, we intend to build a robust future, continuing to help adults with IDD live independently with dignity and choice for years to come.
Frequently Asked Questions
We have been doing incredible work despite this and will only have a greater positive impact without this drain of important resources. We are healthy and will overcome this betrayal.
The damages primarily impact what more we could have done: more homes purchased for adults with IDD; more upgrades to their homes; and more accessibility improvements.
While we will never fully know or be able to quantify the true impact of her actions regarding donation/grant support, many of our funding partners and legacy foundations continue to support our mission.
This former employee worked diligently to cover up her wrongdoing. She took advantage of changing leadership (4 leaders during her tenure) and a rapidly growing organization (55+ homes acquired during her tenure), which afforded her enough “cover” to perpetuate her fraud.
Additionally, this individual created fraudulent financial reports, doctored receipts, and fabricated presentations to the board–all deliberate smokescreens to hide her movement of funds.
The current executive director, Matt Elmore, joined PCH in 2023. Through his diligence and by introducing tighter controls, he quickly unraveled her scheme, upon which he hired an independent forensic accounting firm to conduct an audit and ultimately turned the findings over to local and state authorities.
Typical nonprofit auditing processes are designed to test a sample of financial activity, not review every transaction. In this case, the fraud was intentionally hidden outside standard sampling and supported with falsified documents. Once we became aware of discrepancies, we hired an independent forensic accounting firm to uncover the full scope of the crime.
We have engaged a new auditing firm to conduct annual auditing procedures and have implemented significantly tighter controls across all financial systems.
The court has ordered Fouse to pay full restitution to PCH. This process is facilitated by the federal government.
We worked with our independent forensic accounting firm to investigate this issue during their research. There is no evidence that resident, donor, employee, or volunteer personal information was compromised or misused in any way. Protecting personal and professional data remains a top priority.
Insurance funds primarily assisted in covering investigative, legal, and accounting fees. A very small portion of the loss was returned via insurance coverage.
Our team has taken several steps to ensure our organization is never again a victim of a crime like this.
We worked with a top St. Louis forensic accounting firm to implement new controls, processes, and procedures. We are now utilizing a third-party administrator to handle payroll and reimbursements. We have also engaged a new auditor to review and create annual financial audit reports. Additionally, the organization has contracted with a new corporate credit card issuer that provides much easier access to supervisor oversight.
Throughout the entirety of this process, the board of directors has assisted with the determination and implementation of new controls.
Yes. We had the opportunity to submit victim impact statements to the judge presiding over this case. They can be viewed here:
We remain dedicated to our mission of providing safe, affordable, and well-maintained homes for adults with IDD. We continue to make new homes available, expanding our inventory into additional areas of the greater St. Louis metro area. Plans are underway to expand our service model from free-standing houses to include multi-unit apartment homes. This dwelling will become home for up to 20 adults with IDD (anticipated groundbreaking in 2026).
To date, the Department of Justice has released three statements regarding this case. They can be found here:
The best way to show your ongoing belief in our mission can be accomplished in three ways:
- Spread the word. Connecting us with potential partners and advocates can create opportunities to further our mission.
- Give from the heart. Whether it’s a one-time gift or ongoing support, every contribution helps create safe, welcoming homes.
- Share your time and talents. Through volunteering, you can provide valuable support that helps our mission thrive.