What We Do
If you are hungry, homeless, need assistance to stay in your home, need referrals, or for other help, please call our Helpline.
Helping Those In Need
The Society of St. Vincent de Paul is a nonprofit organization that provides direct assistance to a community's most vulnerable residents—those who live in poverty and those who are struggling to make ends meet. Our goal is to help them meet basic needs, build self-sufficiency, and ultimately break the cycle of poverty. Instead of only helping those who come to us, we provide one-on-one service through our home visits, being invited into people's homes to learn the extent of their needs before determining how to help.
Following the tradition of Frederic Ozanam, founder of the International Society of St. Vincent de Paul, we serve anyone in need, within our means.
Subject to available resources, the aid we provide most often includes:
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food
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financial assistance for rent and utilities, and emergency housing
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clothing
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beds & furniture
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consultation, referral and intervention services
Each year, the operations of the Sacramento Diocesan Council on average help over 225,000 needy people throughout the Diocese of Sacramento.
The Home Visit
The Home Visit is the cornerstone of our organization. This personal contact with the poor, suffering, lonely and neglected in their homes is the distinctive character of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. Our home visits promote friendship with those we serve and enable our teams of volunteers to more fully understand the suffering of those we visit and to best assess their needs. We provide assistance to all persons requesting aid and no person is refused assistance based on ethnicity, cultural. origin, or religious affiliation. The aid we provide most often consists of direct financial assistance for rent, utilities, transportation, clothing, food, mattresses, frames and furniture as well as consultation, referral and intervention services. The Society conducts its work while maintaining confidentiality and dignity of those served.
“From the beginning of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, the central and most basic activity of Conferences has been the visitation of the needy in the home. This action is the clearest symbol of the Vincentian charism which dictates the highest respect for the dignity of the poor: the visitor becomes the guest and the person being helped is the master. It symbolizes the fact that Vincentians are to reach out to the needy, rather than requiring them to report to an outside service site. It is in the home environment that needy persons feel most free to entrust their stories of struggle to the helper. It is there, in the family setting, that Vincentians are asked to listen, offer humble advice, and render assistance.”
Source: Manual, National Council, Society of St. Vincent de Paul (SVdP)
If you need assistance please call our Helpline at 916-572-7553.
The Thrift Store
Our Thrift Store has many and varied items including high quality furniture, clothing, household goods, books, pictures and antiques. We accept donations of gently used goods which we provide to those in need through our local St. Vincent de Paul Conferences. We also sell donated items and use those funds to help the poor through other programs, such as our Mattress program. Also, the Thrift Store operates as an employment and job skills training opportunity in our community and provides an opportunity for community service. Our Thrift Store has been a stable anchor in the local community for more than 20 years. Learn more...
Voice for the Poor
We seek to speak especially for those who have no voice. We encourage our members, who through their service, see and hear "the cry of the poor," to bring those stories of the poor to life.
A role of the Council is to help create awareness and interest among Vincentians and encourage our members to speak in one unified voice as an extension of our service to the individuals and families that the Society serves.
We have stories to tell, images to share, statistics of the numbers of people in need that we help, and service that we can measure and describe to key decision makers so that changes can be made to alleviate and end poverty.
For more information about Voice of the Poor, please visit the SVDP USA webpage.
Disaster Relief
The Society St. Vincent de Paul's Disaster Services Corporation (DSC) responds to major disasters such as floods, wildfires, tornadoes and other events throughout the United States. DSC supports St. Vincent de Paul Councils and Conferences when disaster strikes locally with the help of their Rapid Response Teams. Your contribution will help to change lives, rebuild homes, provide shelter and emergency daily-living supplies and most importantly, restore hope to those in need!
Sacramento Diocesan Council Disaster Relief & Case Management
St. Vincent de Paul Council and Conference Rapid Response Teams along with Rapid Response and Long-Term Recovery Grants respond when disaster strikes locally. They help to change lives, rebuild homes, provide shelter and emergency daily-living supplies and most importantly, restore hope to those in need!
We have a well-respected qualified team that has done tremendous work with fire victims since 2014. As of April 1, 2023, our disaster team has begun working with flood victims.
Learn more...
Exodus Project: Sacramento & Solano
Exodus Project is a mentoring re-entry program for those being released from the Sacramento County Jail. More than 2 dozen mentors have been trained to work with returning citizens upon release assisting them with housing, jobs, and many other areas of their lives that will prevent recidivism.
Rooted in the teachings to care for the least among us, EXODUS PROJECT aims to be a bridge of support and compassion during the tenuous transition from incarceration back into the community. Beginning during the last months of incarceration, mentoring continues for six months post-release.
This three-year pilot program is run by Society of St. Vincent de Paul, Sacramento Diocesan Council and supported by The Diocese of Sacramento. Exodus Project is also a state site of the National SVdP USA Immersion Reentry Program.