When you're in need, when things are dire, there's an organization out there that makes emergency house calls.
The Society of St. Vincent de Paul is like the Batman of charities: always out there in the shadows, just waiting for the distress signal. It's also an international Catholic organization whose mission is to be there for those who have nowhere else to go.
"We help people who are either desperate or are close to it and they've pretty well run out of options at that particular time," explained Lou Duigou, one of the group's members in its St. Albert conference.
"That's when we come in and, as we say often, 'give them a leg up.' They just get buried and there's no way out and there's no source of funds. We'll come in and help."
That local conference has just marked its 10h anniversary of service but in seven years of reporting, I only ever seem to hear of them around Christmas. At a time when the St. Albert Food Bank, the St. Albert Kinettes and the Salvation Army are working overtime to make sure that people have food on the table and gifts under the tree, every one of those agencies always says that the Society of St. Vincent de Paul has them covered, even when other agencies aren't answering their phones because they've all gone home to be with their families.
And it's not just food that the society can offer either: furniture and household items, clothes, bus tickets, and more. They have an ongoing weekday clothes closet for people to pick through. They can help refer you to existing community support programs. They can offer advocacy and guidance toward regained self-sufficiency, and they are always able to lend a friendly ear if you are struggling in any way.
In short, they may be a bit of a poorly kept secret, but they are awesome at what they do and they don't seek fame for their good deeds. Sounds like a superhero to me.
A bit of background
Vincent was a young pious and conscientious Frenchman in the late 1500s when he noticed that parishioners in his church were often moved to help their neighbours in times of dire need. Fast forward to the mid-1800s when Italian-born Frederic Ozanam yearned to see parity of wealth amongst all people. He helped found the Society of St. Vincent de Paul with the same aim as the neighbours of the organization's namesake.
Just as the numbers of those in need will never wane, there will never be a decline in the numbers of those who wish to help. The society has only grown in the last 200 years. It's operational in more than 100 countries and has nearly 800,000 members, more than 500 of which are active in the Edmonton area, including a few dozen right here in this city.
Gerry Tersmette remembers his first experiences, when he was a Junior Vincentian going door to door for pennies and nickels as a young man in the Netherlands.
"I knew all about St. Vincent de Paul and my grandfather was a staunch supporter. He was fairly affluent and could afford to knock on the door of those in need and hand out money," he said, recalling how he jumped at the chance to help start a conference (as the local chapters are known).
"I learned through Parish Council that we have poor and disadvantaged people in St. Albert. While the numbers are relatively small, it's a fact of life."
The year after this group was established, it received a request from the conference headquartered at St. Joseph's Basilica in downtown Edmonton for help as they didn't have the resources to accommodate the demand for them.
"The group discussed it … and decided that we would help them out until they get organized. Well, eight or nine years later, we are still doing it," Tersmette joked. "The real spirit of St. Vincent de Paul is helping. St. Albert is an affluent community and it has been very, very generous in many, many ways: financially and materially."
Joan Stang added that more calls come in the winter. That's when the climate and the economic climate seem to be at their worst.
"It's cold! It's hard for them to get out. They have to use food banks. The food bank you can only use once a month as a rule and so, if they run out of food or something, we get more calls. Utility bills are more in the winter."
Historically, 10 per cent of its clients come from this city while the rest are in Edmonton's inner city.
Stang continued that Alberta's oil boom years brought a lot of people here, not all of who were able to handle the transition.
"We just had a family from Montreal that came here for work, but by the time they paid to get here, they had no money for furniture. There was a mother and father, and a daughter and her husband all living together in a very, very small place. The men were both working only part-time. The mother was in a wheelchair and the daughter was home looking after her. They spent everything they had just to get here. Eventually the men will probably get better work. We don't expect to be helping them every month."
"When we help, the idea is that we are helping you this month to get over this bad patch. We're not social services. We won't be there next month. We took them food. We took them pots and pans."
The Society of St. Vincent de Paul is, after all, an emergency assistance organization. Just before Christmas, they received and fulfilled calls for more than 40 beds.
At the same time, they don't preach but they do give information, including referrals to other organizations that can offer more enduring assistance.
When they do come to help, they don't just drop off the goods and leave. They are there to get to know the recipients, understand their situations and their challenges, and perhaps leave them a little smarter for how they can better cope by themselves.
There's something about the old adage that says 'Give a person a fish and they will eat for a day. Teach them how to fish and they will eat forever' that comes to mind. Even the logo sparks that imagery.
Tersmette said that it's not preaching though.
"Just a pinch of advice."
"Just to show that somebody cares," Val Merchant added.
"And it's non-judgmental," concluded Mary-Anne Warren. They all reminded me that, while the society is based in Catholicism, there are no bounds to who can make that all-important call for help. All faiths, all backgrounds … everyone is a neighbour who sometimes experiences that dire need.
Is it all worth it? May Carline responded with a resounding 'yes'.
"We were all asked if we wanted to give up working in the inner city. There wasn't one of us that said yes. I think that says a lot about us as a group."
The St. Albert Conference helps to respond to the 1,200 calls (to its assistance line at 780-471-5577). In 2013 alone, it helped to 4,656 families including nearly 3,000 children.
Its own moment of need
"A chapel is a chapel," says the organization's website at www.ssvpedmonton.ca, "unless it's the overcrowded Distribution Centre of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul in Edmonton. We need a building. We need help to get one."
With all of that excellent humanitarian work accomplished over the last decade, perhaps karma is in order to help the society find a new building to continue to offer assistance to the thousands that need it. The conference's members are actively pursuing a distribution facility of up to 10,000 sq. ft. (double the size of the capacity of their current building) with overhead doors and a loading dock to allow for more efficient loading and unloading. Ideally, it would be located outside of the downtown core but still north of the river where it would be most central for volunteers and clients.
It would still have to be something that they could keep within their financial means as well, of course.
To that end – and to help the society with all of its endeavours otherwise – its members are hosting a charity sale. The public is invited to shop for antiques, collectibles, housewares and furniture, with all proceeds going to help support the society's work with those living in poverty. There's lots of parking and no entrance fee.
The fundraising sale runs from noon to 7 p.m. on Thurs. and Fri., April 9 and 10, and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sat., April 11. It's set to take place at the auditorium of the St. Andrew Centre located at 12720 111th Ave. in Edmonton.
