Society of St. Vincent de Paul awards grant to help needy in Chiefland

The National Council of the Society of St.Vincent de Paul (SVdP) today awarded a $1,000 grant to help the needy in Chiefland. The money is part of the Society’s annual Friends of the Poor grant program and will provide several forms of assistance, including help with utility bills.
The current funding cycle provided grants to the Society’s North Central and Southeastern regions.  The disbursement to Chiefland is part of $80,000 in Friends of the Poor grants that the Society will make this year throughout the United States. Grant applications are reviewed and awarded annually on a regional basis.  Funding comes from the general public and the Society’s 146,000 members around the country, and are targeted to specific needs in each community that are above and beyond those available to the  organization’s Conferences (a group of volunteers who come together to grow spiritually and offer person-to-person service to those in need).
“The timing of the grant is very welcome,” said Matthew Barber, who serves as president of the Society’s St. John the Evangelist Conference in Chiefland. “People in the area have been struggling just like many others during the recession, so we’re grateful for the additional support this grant will enable us to provide.”
One of the oldest and most effective charitable organizations in the world, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul (www.svdpusa.org) is a Catholic lay organization of more than 690,000 men and women throughout the world who  voluntarily join together to grow spiritually and offer person-to-person service to the needy and people living in poverty in 142 countries on five continents. With the U.S. headquarters in St. Louis, Mo., membership in the United States totals more than 146,000 in 4,600 communities. Programs  include home visits, housing assistance, disaster relief, job training and placement, food pantries, dining halls, clothing, transportation and utility costs, care for the elderly and medicine. Providing more than $572 million in tangible and in-kind services, SVdP serves more than 14 million people in  need each year, performs more than 644,000 visits to people in their homes, and delivers more than 7 million service hours to those in need.