St. Vincent de Paul of Los Angeles serves those in need within Los Angeles, Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties. Most volunteers, known as “Vincentians,” belong to groups called “Conferences of Charities,” based in Catholic church parishes, although some conferences are based in schools, universities, and community centers.
Volunteer with a Conference
of Charity
As a volunteer, you can:
- Conduct a food, clothing, blanket or toy drive for those in need
- Speak to neighbors in need and help them find needed resources
- Make home visits or virtual visits to assess the needs of a family
- Provide financial, emotional and spiritual assistance
- Work in a parish food pantry or soup kitchen
- Deliver food or meals to those unable to leave their home
- Visit retirement and convalescent homes
- Drive senior citizens to the grocery store or doctor’s appointment
- Help individuals with social service paperwork
- Plan service opportunities for youth members
- Feed our unhoused community at the Cardinal Manning Center
- Assist with operations at Circle V Ranch Camp’s summer program
To volunteer, find the conference nearest you by contacting your local Catholic church and asking if they have a St. Vincent de Paul Conference of Charity. If there is not a Conference of Charity at your Catholic church parish, please call our Vincentian Services Department at 1-888-552-7872 or vincentianservices@svdpla.org.
Donate to a Conference of Charity
We welcome those of you that wish to assist us in our mission to aid those in need by either donating to us to help finance our continued services, or providing the following items:
- financial donations to assist people with rent, utilities, or food
- packaged, non-perishable, non-expired food to directly to our community food pantries
- new or gently used, clean blankets
- new sock donations
- hygiene kits (personal kits with shampoo, soap, toothbrush, toothpaste, sanitary napkins, shaving razors, etc.)
If you are interested in donating items, please call our Vincentian Services Department to find a pantry near your or for additional donation information at 1-888-552-7872 or vincentianservices@svdpla.org.
Start a New Conference
of Charity
If you are interested in starting a Society of St. Vincent de Paul Conference of Charity at your parish, school or community center, follow these steps:
- Get your pastor’s or executive’s permission.
- Contact the Council of Los Angeles’ Vincentian Services Department at 888-552-7872 to discuss process of formation, and to schedule a recruitment drive.
- Ask the pastor/executive and others to personally invite prospective members to join.
- Schedule an orientation meeting for those who expressed an interest in joining. During this short, informal meeting, prospective members will learn what types of work members of a St. Vincent de Paul group do within their local communities.
- Elect a president and appoint officers.
- Meet at least twice each month. At these meetings, we pray, meditarte, and discuss how we may best serve people in need in our local community.
- Serve your brothers and sisters in need in a spirit of charity and love.
If you are interested in starting a conference, feel free to contact the Council of Los Angeles’ Vincentian Services Department at 888-552-7972 or e-mail vincentianservices@svdpla.org.
Youth and Young Adult Conferences
Members of youth and young adult conferences are able to participate in many activities and endeavors such as:
- Initiating service projects in their own communities with the support of the Society such as: food drives for food pantries, meals for the unhoused, senior home visits, sock/sweater/blanket drives and distribution, and more
- Collaborate with other Adult Conferences in our Community
- Visit people in need to offer support services and link them to local resources.
- Volunteering at our Cardinal Manning Center, including participating in overnight and weekend “urban plunge” experiences
- Learning leadership skills as part of the Camper-In-Leadership-Training (CILT) program
- Taking part in our Annual Youth/Young Adult Work-Retreat at Circle V Ranch Camp
If you are interested in volunteering or even starting a youth or young adult conference of the Society at your parish, school or university, please contact us at 888-552-7872 or vincentianservices@svdpla.org.
Vincentian Spirituality
Through our services we become closer to God. The primary role of our volunteers is not to provide people with payment of bills, clothing, or food, but instead, it is to act out our faith by loving our neighbor.
We strive to see the face of Christ in our brothers and sisters in need. Through this service, we learn to be more compassionate, more understanding, more generous and more loving to these members of our communities.
Our members dedication to this spiritual development is what separates the Society of St. Vincent de Paul from other social agencies. Our objective is to bring help to alleviate suffering, help families become self-sufficient, and through our example, bring Christ to everyone we meet.
This is why we collect food and raise funds. It is to demonstrate the truth of the central message of Christianity: “love one another.”
For more information please contact the Vincentian Services Department
at 1-888-552-7872 or vincentianservices@svdpla.org.
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