Dear Brother and Sister Vincentians,

Please share this monthly news with all Vincentians.

ONRC MEETING Please note our spring meeting will be held in Etobicoke April 13/14, 2018. We have now finalized our hotel booking confirmation. Please book your hotel room before March 12, 2018 by calling:

Best Western Plus Toronto Airport Hotel
5825 Dixie Rd.
Mississauga, ON L4W 4V7
Phone: 905-670-8180

Refer to Booking code: 1029700
Society of Saint Vincent de Paul, Ontario Regional Council Spring Meeting

Please refer to the agenda and workshop information for what will be provided. We hope to see many of you at the meeting.

We ask that you submit your registration form to sarah@ssvp.on.ca no later than Friday, March 23rd.

SPIRITUAL MATTERS

The February spiritual reflection reminds us to celebrate the feast of our first Spiritual Advisor, Blessed Rosalie Rendu, on February 7, and suggests Lent is a time for me to examine myself as an ‘ambassador for Christ’.

ANNUAL REPORTS

Annual Reports are available on the ONRC website or on the National website.

Reminder of due dates:
January 31, 2017: Conferences to provide annual reports to next higher Council
February 28, 2017: Particular Councils to provide annual reports to next higher Council
March 20, 2017: Central Councils to provide annual reports to ONRC
March 30, 2017: ONRC to provide annual report to National

Please email your completed report to terry@ssvp.on.ca and copy sarah@ssvp.on.ca. There is no need to mail a signed copy of the report, but do keep a signed copy for your records. Should you have any questions about completing the annual reports, please contact terry@ssvp.on.ca or sarah@ssvp.on.ca.

ANNUAL CHECKLIST

The Rejuvenation Committee has prepared Annual Checklists to help Conference and Council Presidents with items that come up through the year. Hopefully, you will find these helpful for your activities.
Conference President's Annual Checklist
Council President's Annual Checklist


NORTH OF 60 & HELPING OUR FRIENDS IN THE NORTH

Please review Pegg Leroux’s article and request for help on the 2018 Summer Crossing to Nunavat.

Thank you to Pegg for all her efforts co-ordinating the North of 60 project helping our Inuit friends in Nunavat, and thank you to the many Conferences/Councils who are helping with the adoption of a community, food gathering and/or with providing financial support so that we can help 8 communities in Nunavat this year.

We helped our First Nations friends in Moosonee and received an update on the help provided which you can read about here. Thank you to Michelle and Deacon Gord Jenkinson for co-ordinating this effort, and thank you to the Conferences who assisted in this effort.

ADVOCACY

You will want to check out the recent Voice of the Poor - Advocacy newsletter.

There is also an article regarding “The Injustice of Unpaid Internship”

YOUTH NEWS The St. Theresa of Calcutta Youth Group in Bowmanville completed their first official SSVP project and did an amazing job. Check it out.

WEBSITE CHANGE

Under the “Need Help” tab of the Home Page, we used to provide the option to do a postal code search, which we have now removed at the request of some conference/council presidents. Our search system was not 100% accurate which resulted in some of our friends in need being directed to the wrong conference, either because of a glitch in our system or because the actual conference for that area was closed/inactive and our system generated another conference by default. This resulted in frustrated friends in need.

Vincentians can still use the search feature by logging into our “members” area with the password “ozanam” (all lower case, no quotes). However, we ask that members keep in mind there may be some errors encountered with this search.

Please remember that that this password should not be shared beyond our current/active members of the Society, as it grants access to some documents not intended for public viewing.

NATIONAL NEWS

Be sure to check out the January Vincenpaul edition if you have not yet had a chance to read it.

Also, the nomination process has now started for the election of a new National President as our current National President, Jean-Noel Cormier’s term, comes to an end June 30, 2019.

The Government of Canada has changed its requirements regarding applications for federal funding under its Canada Summer Jobs program. An attestation must now be included that “both the job and the organization’s core mandate respect individual human rights in Canada, including the values underlying the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms as well as other rights. These include reproductive rights and the right to be free from discrimination on the basis of sex, religion, race, national or ethnic origin, colour, mental or physical disability, sexual orientation or gender identity or expression.” More details are available from the Department for Employment and Social Development Canada in English and in French.

You can access the Catholic Conference of Catholic Bishops statement on this matter in both languages at the following web-links:

for English, click here
for French, click here

Thank you for all the wonderful work you do helping our many friends in need!

Linda Dollard
President