Society of St Vincent de Paul Archdiocese of Galveston Houston

Vincentian Services: Vincentian services include the home visit and food assistance ministries conducted through Conferences. The home visit ministry provides home visits to people in need to determine the exact nature and details of help required. This includes direct financial assistance as well as emotional and spiritual support. The food assistance ministry provides food to people in need through pantries operated by 16 Conferences. Through the home visit and food assistance ministries, the Vincentians identify those issues critical to people living in poverty while raising awareness so communities and elected representatives can develop strategies aimed at reducing or eliminating poverty.

Thrift Stores and Voucher Ministry:Thrift stores and voucher ministry focus on addressing needs by fostering a dignified family environment for seniors, parents, and children to shop for low cost goods. The Society's thrift stores offer low-cost goods to the general public and thrifty shoppers. Stores display vintage, gently used, and occasionally unused merchandise for those in need to shop and choose with dignity. There are often sales, special events, and mark-downs that make the merchandise even more accessible. For those individuals and families who lack the resources to purchase items from one of the stores, the Society has a voucher ministry that includes giving vouchers to individuals to redeem for clothing at the two resale stores.

Food Network:Food network serves ten counties in the Galveston-Houston area by providing administrative and operational support to the sixteen food pantries operated by the Conferences as part of Vincentian services and one pantry operated by The Council. All food pantries supported by The Council are authorized to distribute food commodities for the Emergency Food Assistance Program and promote healthy diets by providing food items, special diet items and household goods, such as paper products, baby items and hygiene necessities.

Resiliency: The Resiliency program includes Bridges Out of Poverty and nationally known "Getting Ahead in a Just-Gettin'-By World" (Getting Ahead). Phase I of the programs consist of a 16-week incentivized program that helps improve people's lives by assessing their own lives and circumstances and developing tools and skills as part of their move from crisis to self-sufficiency. Getting Ahead participants create their own plan to build more sustainable lives, healthy relationships with community members, short- and long-term goals, and step-by-step plans to achieve those goals. Once participants complete Phase I, they accelerate into Phase II, the Graduate program and are partnered with mentors to elevate their comprehension of financial budgeting and negotiation skills. Learning how to cope with daily life challenges and building the hope that's needed for a better future enables them to advance to the final phase, the Alumni program. Discovering how the right relationships can be a powerful aid to help people along the journey out of poverty, participants become ambassadors for the Society by becoming actively involved in sharing and promoting the success of the program as well as becoming mentors and program facilitators.

Underserved Communities: The Underserved Communities Initiative includes a grant funding program with the goal to create healthy and vibrant Conferences serving at-risk and distressed areas of Galveston-Houston. This program was designed utilizing the Distressed Communities Index (DCI) tool, which contains seven metrics to capture distinct aspects of economic distress -- education, housing, unemployment, employment instability, poverty rate, income ratio, and business growth. Often these communities have the greatest need but are limited in resources. This program is intended to build both human and financial capacity in areas that have been historically forgotten. Financial assistance is provided by these Conferences to individuals needing assistance with housing, utilities, and other basic needs besides food.