Society of St. Vincent DePaul – Cincinnati

SVDP’s wide range of programs including the following:
• Homelessness Prevention: rent and utility assistance
• Choice Food Pantry: food for families suffering food insecurity
• Charitable Pharmacy: free pharmaceutical care to uninsured and underinsured people.
• Reentry Program: assistance for returning citizens (recently incarcerated individuals)
• Thrift Store Vouchers: clothing, furniture, and household supplies
• Ozanam Center for Service Learning: education and retreat programs about service, poverty, and social justice
• Vincentian Volunteers of Cincinnati (VVC): year-long volunteer program for young adults
• Additional Services: vision and dental screenings, Ohio state IDs, birth certificates, and seasonal needs (coats, toys, holiday meals, fans/air conditioners).

• (8) Health
• (9) Hunger
• (11) Poverty

Homelessness Prevention
A stable home is basic human need, yet thousands of people need help to establish this stability. Just one medical emergency, unexpected car repair, death in the family, or lost job can send neighbors into a downward spiral.

This is where SVDP steps in. Each week SVDP is able to provide rental and utility assistance to approximately 20 families on the brink of homelessness. Once the families are selected, they are required to meet with SVDP’s social service team to identify the source of financial trouble, develop a monthly budget, and create attainable action steps to address the source of the problem. When this in-person meeting is complete, SVDP will make its payment directly to the landlord or utility company. The average amount of assistance is $359 for rent and $322 for utilities.

The ultimate goal of SVDP’s Homelessness Prevention Program is to prevent eviction and keep families safely in their homes. SVDP aims to have at least 75% of those families that receive assistance avoid eviction for at least the following six months. SVDP achieved an 86% eviction avoidance rate in 2018.

Your grant would help provide critical assistance to keep people safely in their homes.

Choice Food Pantry
To meet the ever-growing needs of those suffering from food insecurity across Cincinnati, SVDP operates a network of eleven neighborhood-based food pantries, plus its main Choice Food Pantry in the West End.

These food pantries do incredible work to provide sustenance to those who are hungry, and yet it is difficult to keep pantries regularly stocked with nutritious food and personal care items. SVDP and its pantries receive generous donations of food from grocery stories, canned food drives, and other partners, yet certain items are hard to come by such as fresh fruits and vegetables, meat, dairy, cereal, and hygiene products.

Neighbors came through SVDP’s Choice Food Pantry over 30,000 times last year. Your grant would allow SVDP to purchase the nutritious foods and personal care products that are not typically donated to help ensure our neighbors have access to these important products.

Charitable Pharmacy
People living in poverty must often make impossible choices such as feeding their kids, fixing their car to get to work, or paying for health care. SVDP’s Charitable Pharmacy makes these decisions easier by providing free, professional pharmaceutical care for patients who would otherwise go without their medication.

The scope of the Charitable Pharmacy’s services is staggering. It helps patients access their critical medications. It provides “Medication Therapy Management” which helps neighbors understand how their medications affect their illnesses and ultimately avoid unnecessary trips to the hospital. It helps patients manage their diabetes, quit smoking, and get connected to primary care. All of this is done in a way that treats patients with dignity and respect and empowers them to take better control of their own health.

The Charitable Pharmacy would not be successful without medication donations from many generous partners. However, some of the more commonly needed medications, such as insulin and inhalers, are rarely donated.

Your grant would help SVDP purchase critical medications and provide neighbors with the prescriptions that they need.