CONSIDERING VOLUNTEERING?
If you are reading this, you have already taken a step to find out more about what we do and how we help our neighbors in need. Perhaps you have had a nudge of some kind, feeling the need to do more, to give back to the community and to help your neighbor. Perhaps like many, Pope Francis has struck a cord with you and you hear his words calling us to open our hearts to the poor.
Like many of us, you have most likely volunteered in some capacity in the past. Maybe you are an event organizer, maybe you just roll up your sleeves and get on with what needs doing and maybe you are a person who connects with others by offering your time to be with neighbours that are alone.
Our Ministry comprises a family of people of all walks of life and at all stages of life who have received a gentle nudge to reach out and help those in need where we live. We help anyone who asks for help without judgment and with compassion. Our volunteers are welcomed as they all offer their own unique gifts to the Ministry. Together with all of those talents combined, the fruits of our labours are, as our mission statement confirms, living the gospel with love, peace, justice and joy.
Our unique characteristic of SSVP is our Home Visits. In pairs, we visit the families in their homes. They welcome us and we build relationships of trust so that we can refer them to resources and agencies that can move them forward in their lives.
By now you will have gathered that we are not just an organization that gives out food. Blessed Frederick Ozanam our founder made sure of that. In fact our Ministry has been shaped by our founder's vision of looking beyond the charitable act of offering food, to looking to the root causes of poverty and to learn more about how we can help those in need, individually, at a community level and beyond at an institutional level. The Vincentian family network has a voice that is well respected globally and it is because we truly love the poor that we are moving past charity towards helping people move out and stay out of poverty.
Our members are former teachers, accountants, social workers, doctors, retail assistants, business managers, sales persons, single moms, grandmothers, young people and each of us have a particular way that we can help the poor. The more volunteers that step forward into our Ministry the more impactful our assistance can be.
What skills and talents do you possess, and are you willing to share your gifts and time with those who are less fortunate? Are you wanting to increase the depth of your faith journey spiritually? Whatever your skill, you will find stepping forward in service rewarding and enriching.
Please take the next step to meet one of us and to talk about the Ministry. Maybe start slowly by helping at the next opportunity, meet some of the Vincentian family, ask questions and then join us in service.
God Bless.
Your SSVP St. Paul The Apostle team