Society of Saint Vincent de Paul

About SVP

• The Society of St. Vincent de Paul is a direct service non-profit organisation whose work primarily involves person-to-person contact with people who have a variety of needs. In addition to direct assistance, we try to promote self-sufficiency, enabling people to help themselves. Any assistance offered by the Society is given in a non-judgemental spirit of compassion, based on the need of the individual or family.

• A key strength of SVP is in the personalised delivery of help which makes it unique in its role as a charitable organisation. We accept people as they are and try to create a caring, non-threatening environment, respecting the dignity of those who seek our help. We only offer advice when it is asked for, and do not believe in telling people what they should do. Our aim is to maintain the dignity of the individual and to promote long-term self-sufficiency. We do so by treating people with respect, while endeavouring to build a relationship of friendship, trust and confidentiality.

• While we act as a short-term safety net for those who fall outside the care of the Welfare State or need emergency financial support, we try to embrace those who are marginalised by helping them to rekindle their self-respect and sense of worth. Our Mission is also to rectify the causes of poverty which perpetuate the problems faced by those we work with.

SVP Mission Statement

The Society of St. Vincent de Paul is a Christian voluntary organisation, working with poor and disadvantaged people. Inspired by our principal founder, Frederic Ozanam, and our patron, St. Vincent de Paul, we seek to respond to the call every Christian receives to bring the love of Christ to those in need: "I was hungry and you gave me food" (Matthew 25). No work of charity is foreign to the Society. We are involved in a diverse range of activities characterised by:

Support and friendship

Through person-to-person contact, we are committed to respecting the dignity of those we assist and fostering self-respect. We assure confidentiality at all times and endeavour to establish relationships based on trust and friendship.

Promoting self-sufficiency

It is not enough to provide short term material support. Those we assist are also helped to achieve self-sufficiency in the longer term and the sense of self-worth this provides. When problems are beyond our competence, we enlist the support of specialised help.

Working for social justice

We are committed to identifying the root causes of poverty and social exclusion in Ireland and, in solidarity with poor and disadvantaged people, to advocate and work for the changes required to create a more just and caring society.

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Twenty-three-year-old student Frederic Ozanam and a few friends started the Society of St.Vincent de Paul in Paris on April 23, 1833. It was a time when the Catholic Church in France was the object of bitter hostility following the French Revolutions of 1789 and 1830.

It is a tribute to youth and a remarkable example which can be followed by young people today that, well aware of the very difficult political, social and economic problems of their times, those young men, students starting out on their future lives, all in their early 20s, did not waste time or energy, but preferred to commit themselves to an active, moral and material service to Church in most deprived.

Favouring a practical, direct approach to dealing with poverty, by their own efforts and raising what finance they could, they worked to alleviate the sufferings and poverty of others, less favoured in their social situation. Frederic Ozanam and his friends believed that Christian help and friendship were the best means of achieving social justice.

This is the same path followed today by the members of the Society of St.Vincent de Paul in Ireland as they work for social justice.

The name of St.Vincent de Paul was chosen for the new Society when it was decided that the name of a patron saint should be adopted. The new Society also had strong contacts with Sister Rosalie Rendu. She was a nun in the order which had been founded by St.Vincent de Paul's friend, Louise de Marillac.

The members of the Society of St.Vincent de Paul continue to follow the vision of St.Vincent de Paul and their founder, the 23-year-old Frederic Ozanam, seeking to achieve social justice in a caring nation.

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• Frederic Ozanam instructed his followers that their work for those in need must be “ of love, of kindness,” giving of their time, their talents and themselves.

“The poor person is a unique person of God's fashioning with an inalienable right to respect."

You must not be content with tiding the poor over the poverty crisis: You must study their condition and the injustices which brought about such poverty, with the aim of a long term improvement”. - Blessed Frederic Ozanam 1813 - 1853

What Frederic Ozanam said

"The question which is agitating the world today is a social one. It is a struggle between those who have nothing and those who have too much. It is a violent clash of opulence and poverty which is shaking the ground under our feet. Our duty as Christians is to throw ourselves between these two camps in order to accomplish by love what justice alone cannot do."

"It is truth which will always rise up to judge political systems." - Frederic Ozanam writing in 1838

"Justice is a fixed star which human societies try to follow from their uncertain orbits. It can be seen from different points of view, but justice itself remains unchanged."

"There is exploitation when the Master considers the Worker not as an associate, as a helper, but as an instrument from which he must draw the greatest service at the lowest possible cost." - Frederic Ozanam giving a lecture on 'Commercial Law' in 1840.

"Those who know the way to the home of their poorer brother, whose feet have swept the dust from his staircase. never knock at his door without feelings of respect."

The Society of St. Vincent de Paul is an international voluntary Catholic Christian organisation.

• Membership of the Society is open to anyone who can adopt our ethos. We draw our inspiration and energy from the Gospels and Catholic social teaching and attempt to live the core values (Love of God and Love of our neighbour) through an action oriented programme, working directly with people in need.

The Society has been in Ireland for 164 years and has extensive experience of working with a diverse range of people who experience poverty and exclusion. Through a network of over 9,500 volunteers, it is strongly committed to working for social justice and advocates the creation of a more just and caring society.

With an annual budget of approximately €56 million in 2008, funding is raised by corporate and public contributions, internal collections and government support for projects tackling social exclusion. Members make a contribution towards our administration cost at each weekly meeting.