St. Vincent de Paul Society’s 150 years
The St. Vincent de Paul Society, founded in Paris in 1833, found its way to San Francisco not many years later amid the California Gold Rush.
Tales of miners paying for high life with gold nuggets overlooks the many who did not “strike it rich” and those who had quickly lost their riches. Many were soon in need of food, clothing and shelter.
“It was in this milieu that the St. Vincent de Paul Society sprung up,” said Jen Shelnutt, chief development officer of San Francisco’s St. Vincent de Paul Society. “Some early San Franciscans were motivated by something more valuable than gold – their Catholic faith and the belief that they best served God by helping others.”
Since that time, the organization estimates it has helped more than 3 million people. Records show that in 1866, the first conference – the basic membership unit for SVDP often emanating from a parish – served 4,236 people and raised $3,125.87. Today, more than 1,000 people a day find assistance through Vincentian members in 29 San Francisco conferences, as well as the organization’s Vincentian Help Desk and its six housing, health and food programs.
“While San Francisco has changed immeasurably since the Gold Rush, there still are many in our city who cannot afford the basic needs of food, clothing and shelter,” Shelnutt said. “The need for people driven by faith and charity continues.”
The group’s members – Vincentians – and its volunteer corps work quietly seeking to “serve everyone who appears at our door,” Shelnutt said. While a line-up of celebratory events might seem to contradict the group’s almost anonymous mode of action, it is necessary, Shelnutt said.
“We owe it to the thousands of volunteers upon whose shoulders the St. Vincent de Paul Society has been carried for 150 years,” she pointed out, “and to the millions whose lives have been touched in that time.”
Conference members serve those in need with simple gestures of kindness – making sandwiches for the homeless, picking up groceries and medicine for the homebound, providing transportation for the elderly, also providing emergency funds for struggling families facing homelessness. The St. Vincent de Paul Society is one of San Francisco’s major human service providers operating the largest homeless shelter in Northern California and the City’s largest system of domestic violence shelters.
While “the future is bright” Executive Director Chris Cody is preparing for the extended impact of the current economic downturn. “We are bracing for difficult years ahead,” he told Catholic San Francisco, “but we have faith in the future and gratitude for all that we have received. The financial crisis has resulted in significant funding cut-backs to our programs. Yet, these challenges also present opportunities for St. Vincent de Paul to re-evaluate how we serve the poor and marginalized and reshape and renew our programs.”
Shelnutt said the economy’s devastation has a real impact on the work of St. Vincent de Paul and the people it helps.
“Every program is seeing increases in the number of people seeking help,” she said. “There is an alarming rise in domestic violence and this year, because of lack of space, we had to turn away more women seeking help from battering than in any year since we started keeping statistics. For every woman we took in we had to turn away five.”
The work goes on, Cody said. “St. Vincent de Paul has been a cornerstone charitable organization in San Francisco for 150 years,” he said. “We intend to strengthen and expand our work to continue to serve our fellow San Franciscans by being present to the poor and marginalized in our city.”
A Mass of Thanksgiving Sept. 20 at 3:30 p.m. at St. Mary’s Cathedral begins a series of commemorations of the St. Vincent de Paul Society of San Francisco’s first 150 years of service. Archbishop George H. Niederauer will preside.
Activities for the SVDP “Sesquicentennial Celebration” include the Mass Sept. 20 at St. Mary’s Cathedral; a “Friends for the Poor Walk” Sept. 26; and SVDP’s annual Brennan Dinner in November. For more information about upcoming events and the St. Vincent de Paul Society of San Francisco, visit www.svdp-sf.org or call (415) 977-1270.
By Tom Burke
Catholic SF issue, September 11, 2009
