On January 8th, The Society of St. Vincent de Paul in the Archdiocese of Detroit will roll out its Vision 2015 Strategic Plan to its members. The need for a Strategic plan to guide the Society are several; The Economic Crisis in Southeast Michigan, Changes in our parishes to meet the needs of a changing demographic, improved delivery of services to our clients, just to name a few. A team of Vincentians from throughout the diocese worked diligently for over six months to come up with a vision of how St. Vincent de Paul will respond to the challenges mentioned above. The goals of Vision 2015 are; 1.) To grow and strengthen Conferences. 2.) To improve communication at all levels. 3.) To improve service to our Clients. 4.) Increase Conference revenue. 5.) To improve and enhance programs for Conferences.
Getting people to work together to solve the problems of poverty in France during the 15th Century was the paramount strength of our Patron, Vincent de Paul. Beginning with a meeting, his organizational reflexes came to the fore, and each new “Charity” was a masterpiece of structure. From Vincent’s perspective, experience showed that an even greater efficiency developed from work done as a team with precision and methodically. Responding to his initial intuition, Vincent reflects; “Because, however it is to be feared that this good work, once begun, might die out in a short time if they do not have some union and spiritual bond among themselves to maintain it, they have arranged to form an association that can be set up as a confraternity”. This fundamental statement can be found in all the organizations Vincent founded. Our Vision 2015 plan also derives inspiration from this statement. You will be hearing more of our Goals and Objectives throughout the coming year and how our members are responding to current challenges of poverty and futures challenges.
