For the first time, the number of annual calls from the public received by the Society of St Vincent de Paul has exceeded 100,000.
Due to a lack of resources, the society only records calls at its four biggest offices - at Dublin, the midwest, Galway and Cork. It has additional offices in nine other areas, all of which also reported an increase.
The number of recorded calls to the society’s four main offices came in at 97,610. With the additional traffic from its other nine centres taken into account, the society has stated: “It is clear that the number of calls exceeded 100,000 for the first time in 2012.”
In 2009, the number of recorded calls received by the society was 47,763.
Since then, the volume has increased 104 per cent. In 2010 there were 65,481 calls, and in 2011, it had gone up to 88,072.
This year, there has not been a noticeable spike in calls to any one area. This suggests that the need of those who are seeking help is spread evenly around the State, in both rural and urban areas.
Needs assessed
Once a member of the public makes contact with an office, their needs are assessed, and volunteers assigned to go to their homes to offer help. If it is an emergency situation, someone will visit the same day. There are 10,500 volunteers countrywide, with the age profile of volunteers consistently at the upper age range, which is a worrying trend for the society and one it is trying to address.
Help from the society can come in the form of food hampers, supermarket vouchers, assistance with utility bills, fuel, schoolbooks, clothes, or other needs.
Jimmy Scurry is on of the 10,500 St Vincent de Paul volunteers across the State. For the last three years, he has gone out most Tuesdays with a partner volunteer to visit homes in Finglas between 7pm and 10pm.
Walking round the parts of Finglas he visits weekly – the Cappagh, Dunsink, and Wellmount areas – he says “There’s a forgotten layer of society out there I didn’t know even existed until I joined the society.”
Some houses he points to look neglected, with yards full of abandoned household items. Others are beautifully maintained, with carefully tended gardens. But if you were equating need with appearance, you would be wrong, because all of the houses he points out are visited by St Vincent de Paul.
