ST VINCENT DE PAUL SOCIETY
Helping People in Need
St Vincent de Paul Society
Origins of SVP Society
The SVP Society was founded in Paris in 1833 by Fredric Ozanam and some of his friends, who, challenged about what the Church was doing about the poor people in that city started taking food, fuel and clothing to them in their homes. They were guided in their mission by a Sister Rendu of The Sisters of Charity. They named their group or ‘Conference’, after St. Vincent de Paul, the Patron Saint of Charity. Today the SVP is to be found in 145 countries around the world.
Who/what does the Society consist of?
We are a lay organisation of Christian men and women, young and old, with about 700,000 members worldwide. The 10,000 or so members in England and Wales meet in Conferences (local groups) based usually on parishes but also in schools and Universities. The Vincentian spirit is one of “prayer and good works”, following the great command of Christ to love God and love our neighbour. So our meetings always start and end with prayers. We are essentially a befriending organisation in the widest sense, whereby we aim to help people in need. That ‘help’ in its simplest form is often just a matter of spending some time in conversation with someone who is housebound or living alone. Responding to local needs some Conferences may find themselves visiting prisons, helping people/families who are very poor and deprived and in some areas they find themselves trying to assist asylum seekers who are living in the direst of circumstances.
In Leeds we have 9 shops located on estates (where need is greatest) selling a wide range of everyday goods at affordable prices. In addition we have a furniture warehouse from where donated furniture and many other household items are recycled to assist those in greatest need. There is also the St. Vincent Centre where in addition to a shop and café there are debt advisers, English language classes to help those for whom this is not their first language and computer skills classes.
New Paragraph