ARDEN — People in the Arden area will receive much-needed housing assistance thanks to a $5,000 grant from the National Council of the U.S. Society of St. Vincent de Paul, part of its “Friends of the Poor” Grant Program, and will be disbursed by the society’s St. Barnabas Church Conference. Funds from the grant will be used to pay for rent, minor home repairs and moving expenses.
The St. Barnabas Conference was established in 1999 as part of the District Council of Asheville. The conference currently has 13 active members and serves clients in the south Asheville regions of Buncombe and Henderson counties.
This grant was one of 18 distributed through the program around the U.S. Grant applications are evaluated and awarded quarterly on a regional basis by a Vincentian review committee. Funding is provided by the general public and the society’s 160,000 members in the U.S., and is targeted to specific needs in each community.
“We are pleased to be able to assist local conferences as they work to help those in need,” said Dave Barringer, CEO of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. “Our local conferences are a great example of how a dedicated group of people can make a difference in alleviating suffering.”
One of the largest charitable organizations in the world, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul (www.svdpusa.org) is an international, nonprofit, Catholic lay organization of about 800,000 men and women who join together to grow spiritually by offering person-to-person service to the needy and suffering in 150 countries. With the U.S. headquarters in St. Louis, membership totals more than 160,000 in 4,400 communities across the U.S.
The society offers a variety of programs and services, including home visits, housing assistance, disaster relief, education and mentoring, food pantries, dining halls, clothing, assistance with transportation, prescription medication, and rent and utility costs. The society also works to provide care for the sick, the incarcerated and the elderly.
Over the past year, it provided more than $955 million in tangible and in-kind services to those in need, made more than two million personal visits (homes, hospitals, prisons and eldercare facilities) and helped more than 14.1 million people regardless of race, religion or national origin.