Each Conference of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul helps the needy with food, clothing, utility assistance, rent, prescriptions, advice as to how to get a job, medical needs,shelter, and how to try to escape poverty. No one at the conference level receives any compensation. The Council assists these conferences and needs to raise funds directly from the public.
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The St. Louis Council has approximately 140 Conferences.
I am a member of the St. Vincent de Paul Conference at St. Peter Parish in St. Charles, MO.
All Conferences operate independently of each other although if a Conference has a need greater than they can handle they can contact another Conference to "twin with them on handling a case.
Our Conference has an emergency food pantry. We provide assistance to those in need regardless of their religious belief's if any. We provide monetary assistance with rent, utlities, medicine and emergency lodging among other assistance.
All Conferences in St. Charles County, where I reside, operaate within their Parish boundaries thereby covering the entire county. Our Conference is based in St. Peter Parish. We raise probably 95% of our own funds In 2011 we spent approximately $90,000.00 on services to the less fortunate. Our expenses were probably less than $1,000.00.
This is possible because our Parish provides us with an area for a pantry and a meeting room. There are no paid members in our Conference which is typical in all Conferences. Our phone line is provided by the Parish. Many of our members spend their own money on stationay, mailings and food if necessary for a family. Two members make home visits to the person(s) seeking assistance to ascetain the needs of the person or family.
Our Conference also provides home furnishings where possible. We also have members that cook and serve meals at the Salvation Army in St. Charles.
The motto of the St. Vincent dePaul Society is "No charity is foreign to our work"
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