St Vincent de Paul Society

September is SVP Awareness Month and the theme this year is “Changing lives for the better” with the focus on those people whose lives have been positively impacted and helped in different capacities by the work of the SVP.

One such example is the story of Melvin (name changed to protect anonymity):

” A year ago Melvin was laid off from his job, and as a man in his 50′s unemployment had a disastrous effect on him including destroying his self confidence, making him feel worthless and depressed with loss of interest in life. Former friends avoided him, leading him to become increasingly withdrawn.

His local employment office instigated training and he was given a position at one of the SVP’s community stores. At the end of his placement Melvin managed to secure a job. Melvin feels the SVP changed his life for the better and continues working as a volunteer in the store.”

Within parishes, the core work of the SVP is visiting the elderly, the housebound and the bereaved, providing practical and emotional support through one to one contact. Visits are made to people in a variety of environments including residential homes, hospitals, hostels and on occasion’s prisons. As well as personal contact, material help is also given to those in need, for example families may be assisted with budgeting or assistance with meeting critical bills or debts. Although the SVP is a Christian charity, help is given to anyone in need with no discrimination on the grounds of gender, age, ethnicity, sexual orientation or religious beliefs.

Beyond the parish, the SVP runs various community projects such as; family support centres offering debt and counselling advice, furniture stores and community shops which provide good quality affordable furniture and clothing, and community transport.

The SVP also organises summer camps for children who would not otherwise have a holiday and some parishes, including Pimlico, are able to offer a limited number of family holidays at SVP owned caravans and at the SVP Ozanam Holiday Centre in North Wales.

Through the SVP’s twinning programme England & Wales are linked to India, the Sudan, Grenada, Guyana and Romania and are able to provide v ital financial support. After natural disasters it is often the SVP who remain long after the cameras have left. In the Sudan their baby feeding programme provides meals for 10,000 children every day, an increasingly vital lifeline as other organisations have had to leave due to lack of resources.

This September the SVP wants you to consider how you can change someone’s life for the better by being more conscious of needs within our community. You may even consider offering to help the SVP or similar organisations.

If you are interested in joining or finding out more information please call Theresa Wyatt on 07960 444 497.