MAPLEVILLE — People in need in the Burrillville area will receive financial assistance thanks to a $5,000 grant from the National Council of the U.S. Society of St. Vincent de Paul. The money is part of SVdP’s Friends of the Poor® Grant Program, and will be disbursed by the Our Lady of Good Help Conference in Mapleville.
“This grant will assist our Conference in providing housing assistance to at least 10 families, many with children,” said Michelle Poirier, president of the Our Lady of Good Help Conference. “We will be able to help a total of 35-40 individuals.”
The Our Lady of Good Help Conference was founded in 1998 and is part of the Society’s Diocesan Council of Providence. The Conference provides assistance to those in need, many who fall outside of society’s safety net. The town of Burrillville has pockets of rural poverty and these funds will provide much needed help with rental/housing needs. Last year, the Vincentians from the Our Lady of Good Help Conference went on 42 home visits and assisted more than 1,000 individuals, including those who visited the food pantry.
This grant was one of 14 distributed through the program around the country. Grant applications are evaluated and awarded quarterly on a regional basis by a Vincentian review committee. Funding is provided by the general public and the Society’s members and is targeted to specific needs in each community.
“We are pleased to be able to assist local Conferences as they work to help those in need,” said Dave Barringer, CEO of SVdP. “Our local Conferences are a great example of how a dedicated group of people can make a difference in alleviating suffering.”
One of the largest charitable organizations in the world, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul (www.svdpusa.org) is an international, nonprofit, Catholic lay organization of about 800,000 men and women who voluntarily join together to grow spiritually by offering person-to-person service to the needy and suffering in 155 countries on five continents. With the U.S. headquarters in St. Louis, MO., membership in the United States totals nearly 100,000 in 4,400 conferences.
Throughout the United States, SVdP offers a variety of programs and services, including home visits, housing assistance, disaster relief, education and mentoring, food pantries, dining halls, clothing, assistance with transportation, prescription medication, and rent and utility costs. The Society also works to provide care for the sick, the incarcerated and the elderly. Over the past year, SVdP in the U.S. provided more than $3.4 billion in tangible and in-kind services to those in need, made more than 2.1 million service visits and contacts and helped more than 5.4 million people regardless of race, religion or national origin.
