ABOUT VINNIES
We’re people helping people
In 1833, the St Vincent de Paul Society was founded by a 20-year-old student named Frederic Ozanam, who, after walking through the poorer suburbs on his way to university, became moved to do all he could to assist those less fortunate.
Today the Society of St Vincent de Paul is an international Catholic lay organisation inspired by the Gospels of Jesus Christ. This is a ground-roots organisation whose members and volunteers have been helping countless families and individuals for more than 150 years.
This compassionate outlook, enthusiasm and vision continues today at St Vincent de Paul, or Vinnies (as we are affectionately known) in Wellington and across New Zealand.
Vincentians work in a caring and practical manner to promote human dignity and justice through personal contact with those in need, hence the motto, People Helping People.
Our vision
We strive to provide person-to-person practical and effective help to those in need - sharing their burdens and joys, sowing seeds of hope and promoting self-sufficiency.
Our values
Generosity | Integrity | Compassion | Responsiveness | Advocacy | Commitment
That means the work we do in helping others is confidential - the dignity of those we work with is paramount. The Vincentian way is service to others without fuss or fanfare.
Our Mission
To help people who are disadvantaged or in crisis, comforting them and assuring them that their burdens are not meant to be carried alone.
What we do
Every day we see the reality of living without.
We also see what happens when people are provided with the care, friendship and practical assistance they need to thrive
Vinnies Wellington provides flexible and responsive support that aims to relieve suffering and hardship. Our services respectful, compassionate and non-judgemental.
We help our Wellington communities through:
supporting new parents and carers with clothing and bedding packs for babies
providing food parcels and budget advice
material assistance, such as clothing, furniture and whiteware, to those in need
offering support and friendship
supporting refugees and migrants to adjust to life in Aotearoa.
visiting isolated or lonely members of the community
Vinnies History
Patron saint
St Vincent de Paul
Vincent de Paul was born in the small southern French town of Pouy (later renamed Saint Vincent de Paul in his honour) on 24 April 1581 and ordained as a priest in 1600 at the age of 19.
As a young man he ministered to the wealthy and powerful. However an appointment as chaplain to a poor parish, and to prisoners, inspired him to a vocation of working with those most marginalised and powerless.
Vincent urged his followers to bring God’s justice and love to people who were unable to live a full human life:
“Deal with the most urgent needs. Organise charity so that it is more efficient…teach reading and writing, educate with the aim of giving each the means of self-support. Intervene with authorities to obtain reforms in structure… there is no charity without justice.”
Vincent de Paul died in Paris on 27 September 1660, aged 79. He was canonised on 16 June 1737 and, in 1883, the Church designated him special patron of all charitable associations.
Founder
Frederic Ozanam
"The question which is agitating the world today is a social one. It is a struggle between those who have nothing and those who have too much. It is a violent clash of opulence and poverty which is shaking the ground under our feet. Our duty as Christians is to throw ourselves between these two camps in order to accomplish by love what justice alone cannot do".
Those words, spoken in 1834 by the Founder of the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul, Frederic Ozanam, remain relevant in today’s world.
Frederic was 20 years old when he began the Society with a number of friends in Paris on April 23, 1833. He made that defining statement a year later. It encompasses the spiritual ethos of the Society and its focus on working for social justice.
From the outset the Society favoured a practical, direct approach to dealing with poverty.
“Love the poor. Honour them, my children, as you would Christ himself.”