Ways We Help

Low-Interest Loan Program

Our conference’s growth continues, and with the broad skill sets of our members here at St. Michael Parish, we continue to look at a number of ways to move to the next level of service to those in need.  In previous bulletins and Weekly Note to the Flock, we discussed our efforts in service provider networks, legislative advocacy for the poor, etc.  Yet there is so much more to do.  During our home visits, our teams have repeatedly run into situations where our friend in need is in financial trouble, in danger of utility cut off, or even worse.  Upon probing the situation, we found that in some cases, in a desperate effort to get cash to pay a rent or a utility or medical bill, our friend has turned to the only source of cash available to them: payday loan companies.

At these companies, a person who is in a bind can get a cash loan, either based on future paychecks or the title value of his vehicle.  These companies profit on those people who are desperate for quick funds. They charge outrageous interest rates, which can kite to hundreds of percent, making repayment virtually impossible and tying up the finances of people for years.  These companies have proliferated in Virginia, because of this state’s weak regulation on them.  Just drive down Broad Street toward the city, and you will see that these places have popped up in many places. 

To address this injustice and provide a way out for those friends of ours we encounter who are caught in this trap, our conference will soon be launching a test of our new Low Interest Loan Program.  This program is secured by our conference based on a generous gift from a donor and is being administered by a local community bank, which will work closely both with us and with our friend in need to re-establish credit and financial responsibility.  The goal is to help pay off the high interest payday loan, refinance it at a special low interest rate, and rebuild credit.

If you have some financial experience or would like to help us further finance this direct action program, please contact us.

Voice of the Poor (VOP)

As our Vincentian conference here at St. Michael Parish continues to grow in members and in available human resources and skills, we not only continue and expand our work with each individual friend in need, but we are now expanding our efforts to help address some of the basic causes for poverty in our midst, as well.

Because of our growth in member Vincentians and the broad skills of our many members, our conference here is moving to the next level of service to those in need.  A core group of our Vincentians has begun to review current and pending local governmental and community efforts to help address poverty and are now looking for ways to help address these issues.

Voice of the Poor (VOP) is a major focus on the part of the National Conference of the Society of St. Vincent  de Paul.  The mission of VOP is to continue our core mission to grow in spirituality and faith by helping bring Jesus to those in need and to go a step beyond this, by looking for ways to mitigate root causes for poverty.

VOP is an organizational effort to go deeper into uncovering and addressing the causes of poverty and seeking ways to align our resources and efforts to identify root causes and those conditions which perpetuate poverty, both nationally and locally.  Once those causes are identified, we can align resources and efforts of local conferences, councils, and member
Vincentians to support grassroots actions (both legislative and societal) that stimulate and support favorable changes, which can help the poor and marginalized. 

Our efforts have just begun and will involve coordinating and working closely with Catholic action networks, like the Virginia Catholic Conference to support the priorities of our Virginia Catholic Bishops.  In this way, we hope to help generate grassroots support to lobby our representatives for or against any legislation at any level which can affect the poor.

If you are interested in sharing your expertise, knowledge, and passion to our new conference level efforts as a Vincentian to help in becoming the Voice of the Poor, please consider joining us.