Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul West Central Province
Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul West Central Province
Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul West Central Province
Dear members of the Vincentian Family – United States and Canada:
You are invited to register for the 2011 Vincentian Family Gathering, October 20-23, 2011, in Indianapolis, IN...see full information
Systemic Change is a process that aims to achieve radical transformation in the lives of the excluded through specific strategies...full story can be found on pg. 2 and pg. 8 of the May 2010 ASJ Newsletter
Seventy-three delegates from 15 countries representing 12 branches of the Vincentian family gathered in Bangkok to focus on systemic change and how the Vincentian Family can promote long-term solutions...full story
The speakers challenged us to look beyond our comfort zone, to embrace a new paradigm and new possibilities to better meet the needs of people living in poverty...full story on page 7
A new exhibit titled "Who Knows Tomorrow?" tells the stories of extremely neglected and rejected people from seven countries and how the Daughters of Charity work to assist them...full story
Learn more about an exhibit highlighting the rich history and contributions of Catholic sisters in the United States...full story
What is systemic change?Systemic Change in works among those living in poverty aims beyond providing food, clothing and shelter to alleviate immediate needs, and enables people themselves to engage in the identification of the root causes of their poverty and to create strategies to change those structures which keep them in poverty. This also requires changing attitudes that have caused the problem.
Gayle Johnson, President-elect Ladies of Charity USA, reflects on the US-Canada Meeting – Systemic Change, November 2010
Revisiting the “Ten seeds of Systemic Change” in the life of St. Vincent in Belleville was a source of inspiration and motivation to continue to move the Ladies of Charity forward in our journey of systemic change. The emphasis will be on education, collaboration, growing interpersonal relationships, and advocacy...full story
One hundred twelve members of the Vincentian Family gathered outside St. Louis for four days devoted to training members with the tools necessary to collaboratively develop projects that foster a systemic change approach in our service with people who live in poverty.
To read the full story and see photos see the Sisters of Charity Federation website.
Additional photos of the gathering can be found on the famvin Flickr page.
The Vincentian Family 350th Anniversary Celebration was a huge success! On August 21-22, 2010, over 600 members of the Family participated in the service projects and liturgy to thank God for the lives of Saints Louise and Vincent.
Donations received before the celebration covered expenses for these events. The collection at the Mass and the remaining funds totaled $6,527. In solidarity with the International Vincentian Family, the Saint Louis Area Family will forward this amount to the ZAFEN project in Haiti for reforestation and scholarships (www.zafen.org). This donation will be matched by the International Vincentian Family. Thank you for your generous support of these events and our brothers and sisters in Haiti.
To view the slideshow in fullscreen choose Menu-View Fullscreen in the bottom left corner of the slideshow.
What did we learn from the first meeting of the Vincentian Family in cyberspace? It seems like quite a bit. Before we fast forward to the future lets look at the statistics. In its short life VirtualVins.net was viewed from 290 different cities in 27 countries with the greater part of those visits on April 24. So there were many more visitors than just the viewers from the 20 “official” sites.
If you missed this event you can still view the presentations here
"Seeds of Hope: Stories of Systemic Change" presents examples of systemic change projects and descriptions of strategies to promote systemic change. The Vincentian Family's Commission for Promoting Systemic Change, coordinated by Fr. Robert Maloney, Congregation of the Mission (CM), wrote the book and has since promoted continental meetings worldwide to educate members of the Vincentian Family and prepare trainers on systemic change who bring the effort to local ministries.
"Seeds of Hope" offers the following ideas describing systemic change:
To order "Seeds of Hope: Stories of Systemic Change" download the order form in pdf format here.