Ministry Information Sheet
St. Vincent dePaul Society
| 1. | Description of Ministry |
| The St. Vincent DePaul society conference at St. John's is available to help those who are in a temporary financial crisis because of sickness, loss of employment, or other difficult circumstances. Generally, we receive our calls for assistance through the parish house. Our members visit the clients in their homes on a completely confidential basis and either provide assistance based on conference guidelines or else make a recommendation to the membership for extended help. We provide clients with food vouchers at one of the local supermarkets and vouchers for used clothing or furniture at one of the society's outlets. In some circumstances we make payment of critical client bills, such as of fuel or utility invoice. | |
| 2. | Frequency/Schedule of Meetings/Activities |
| Our monthly meetings generally take place on the third Tuesday evening of each month at 7:30 PM in the Stevenson Center or the dining room in the rectory and end between 8:30 PM and 9:30 PM. We visit clients in pairs and thus work together as teams. We do not visit clients by ourselves. We utilize a weekly rotation schedule for team participation, we have six teams currently in operation. This means that your participation will be generally focused during the week that you handle calls for help from clients. Our members get a great deal of satisfaction from their ability to reach out to people in need and they appreciate that most of their participation is scheduled. | |
| 3. | Where do I perform service? |
| As explained above, most of your service will involve visiting clients in their homes and participation in the monthly meetings. Our members also help to distribute food and/or gifts during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. Twice a year, we also conduct a weekend clothing drive in the Church parking lot. | |
| 4. | Who are served? |
| We visit clients both inside and outside the parish limits. In the past have visited clients outside the parish in Chester, Norwood, Woodlyn, Media, Linwood, Marcus Hook, Darby, et.al. | |
| 5. | Preparation |
| Regarding client interviews, new members are accompanied by an experienced person during their initial visits. Also much is learned by new members regarding client contacts at the monthly meetings. | |
| 6. | Contact Person (s) |
| Deacon Walter Lance 505 Bickmore Drive 610-876-4185 |