b'Persontoperson care:150,000 members across 4,400 Catholic parishes. St. Vincent de Paul SocietyDavid described how the extensive Catholic lay S ometimes a journey of recovery meansorganization works with the church and partners simply overcoming poverty in a sustainableclosely with other organizations such as Catholic way. For the St. Vincent de Paul Society, itCharities, but that services offered by the Society means reaching people in need personally, locally.are determined by a local communitys needs and Vincentians are a network of 800,000 people, pre- the local conferences resources. While members dominantly volunteers, who work in harmonyare primarily Catholic, they do allow people of with communities and churches in 150 countriesother faiths to join as associate members.to respond to needs for disaster relief, job training,Reaching people in-person is essential to what food pantry and thrift store services, housing,the Vincentians do, something the pandemic prison reentry, and medical services. According tomade difficult. Building friendships, understand-the organizations website, a focus for the Society ising an individuals personal struggles, working seeking longer-term pathways out of poverty andthrough a familys particular economic stress, towards the full flourishing of every person. and helping them overcome the hurdles that David Barringer is CEO of the National Coun- cause povertythese are services that beseech cil of the U.S. Society, which supports more thanan in-person encounter. But the Society found \x02 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022 WWW.CITYGATENETWORK.ORG 15'