The Saint Vincent de Paul Society (SSVP) is a lay Catholic organization whose mission is to live the gospel message by serving Christ in the poor with love, respect, justice and joy.  SSVP was founded in France in 1833 by Blessed Frederic Ozanam.  It operates conference in 153 countries including Canada.  The current conference at St. Patrick’s has been active since 2015.

Who are we?

Our conference is comprised of volunteers – fellow parishioners like you.  We are always looking for new volunteers to join our group – people with energy, compassion and ideas to help those in financial need in St. Patrick's neighbourhood.

What do we do?

Our conference provides assistance to people who live within our parish boundaries with donations of gift cards to purchase groceries. We also issue vouchers that can be used at SSVP stores to purchase clothing and other basic household necessities.

Our activities are financed by St. Patrick's in the area of approximately $30,000 per year. This money has been generously donated to the poor fund by parishioners like you. Thank you very much.

How do we help?

A person seeking help calls the church office. One of our volunteers calls the person back to determine the needs and what he/she is eligible to receive. Then a visit date at the caller's residence is set. Our scheduler then coordinates with the volunteers to make arrangements for a home visit.

For security reasons, two volunteers (normally – a man & woman) go together to meet with the caller.

Who do we help?

The people we help live in many different arrangements (e.g. singles, couples & families) and types of residences (e.g. subsidized apartments, rooming houses) and are facing various challenges (e.g.  recent immigrants, unemployment, addiction, physical and emotional problems).  Here is a sampling of some of the people we help:

50 something grandmother
 

• is sole legal guardian of her 3 granddaughters (ages 2-12)
• they live together in a 1 bedroom apartment in subsidized housing
• sadly the children’s parents are restrained from seeing their children

• single mother, 2 children & grandmother living together in 1 room apartment
• they sleep in bunk beds
• family shares communal cooking & toilet facilities

• no family or friends in Ottawa
• very limited resources
• in serious need of emergency medical assistance

While our conference is proud of what we do, our help is limited and can only be considered “emergency assistance”. For example,  gift cards for groceries are issued every 3 months for families with children, and every 5 months for couples and single adults.  We also give gift cards for groceries at Christmas.

Key considerations

In keeping with Christ’s teachings and SSVP's philosophy, volunteers attempt to get to know the person, the challenges he/she may be facing, and encourage the person to carry on as well as possible. The volunteers also provide information on other community resources that could be of benefit and tell the person that the assistance is provided by St. Patrick’s parish. A key aspect of the visit is that the volunteers show respect and kindness towards the person.


In closing, we respectfully request your continued financial help & prayers to support our activities.

If you may be interested to volunteer, please call the parish office at 613-233-1126 extension 567 or email at  [email protected].ca.  A member of the conference will contact you. As a volunteer,  your time commitment would be approximately 3 hours per month for home visits based on your availability.  We also have about five to six members' meetings over the year.

Thanks for your interest and God bless.