St V de Paul looking for new members

“We’re always looking for new members. It’s like all organisations – many hands make light work – so the more of us that we can get involved, the more work we can do for clients that are looking for assistance.”

That comment was by Ken MacPherson, Mullingar area president for the Society of St Vincent de Paul, (which also covers Kinnegad, Castlepollard, Killucan, Delvin), at an information meeting in the Parish Community Centre on Thursday.

There is a need for volunteers for the various conferences within the society, said Ken. “We have conferences in all the different areas – we have shop conferences, we have visitation conferences, and we’re hoping to get a hospital visitation conference going again as well.

“A conference is like a committee, a meeting of members, where together we would discuss how to help people that have contacted us for assistance.”

Ken and the other volunteers at the Parish Community Centre on Thursday were pleased with the turnout, and had a list of names of new people interested in contributing.

He said they were explaining to people that they can give as little or as much time as they want. “We’d like you to tell us when you can regularly be available, and we can pair you up with somebody, because we always work in pairs when we visit our clients.”

He said when someone contacts the St V de Paul looking for help, volunteers go out to assess the situation. They are not qualified to give advice. “What we do is we look to help people and get them in contact with the people they need to talk to, maybe MABs for budgeting problems, it may be a housing issue, there may be an illness and support they need through that, and we direct them to the appropriate organisation.

“Sometimes people contact us because maybe there’s a low-income family and they’ve had a big expense like trying to get their car repaired and it’s taken their shopping money away, so it could be as simple as we alleviate that sort of short-term need by giving some food vouchers.

“Or it could be a long-term issue where someone’s lost a job and they have lots of bills and mortgages that they can’t pay. It would be important that they go to MABs, and we’d work closely with MABs to see what support we should give while MABs are doing their work behind the scenes to help the situation.”

Ken gave those by way of example, and he was at pains to stress that volunteers always work in pairs. “Any new volunteer would always go out with an experienced person, and they would lead the conversation with the clients.

“Then, when the new volunteer is ready and confident, they can start to step in to do the conversations with the clients, and eventually lead with someone else there. That’s the way it works. It’s a collaborative thing that we do together, always in pairs, and supporting each other.

“We see ourselves as a bit of a sticking plaster. We’re not there for long-term support for people. We try to get them to go and see who they need to see to get the long-term support they need.

“We try to step in and alleviate the issue until they get whatever it is that they’re trying to get sorted out.”

Volunteers to hear upsetting things, but they say the rewarding thing is they’re able to help people, and see positive outcomes.

The volunteers are at the core of the organisation, Ken said: “If we haven’t got members to go out and visit, then it’s really hard to give away the money that people are donating to us, so it’s a crucial role – we need to get it [donated money] out to people, and we can only do that with volunteer members.”

Not all volunteers are public facing, as there is also a requirement for accounts, book-keeping and other professional services.

If you would like to get involved, go to svp.ie and apply online. You can pick an area, and a membership officer will contact you.