Dear Brother and Sisters,

Conference Presidents, please share this monthly news with your members to keep everyone connected with what is happening at all levels of the Society. Particular and Central Council Presidents, please share this monthly news with your Vincentian members who may not belong to a Conference, and feel free to email questions or comments to linda@ssvp.on.ca.

SPIRITUAL MATTERS
The July spiritual reflection shares a prayer for Canada to be a united people.

ONRC FALL MEETING

Be sure to mark September 20/21 on your calendars for the fall meeting being held in Brantford. These meetings are open to all members and store managers.

The meeting on September 21st will take place at St. Pius X Church, 9 Waverley Street, Brantford. Blocks of rooms have been booked at 2 hotels as it was not possible to book the required number of rooms at one hotel. You can book at Days Inn, 460 Fairview Drive, Brantford, Tel: 519-759-2700 (rooms are available Sept. 20 and 21 at a cost of $119) or Comfort Inn, 58 King George Road, Brantford, Tel: 519-753-3100 (rooms are available Sept. 20 only at a cost of $101). Please quote the room block for the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul and refer to the maps for locations.

Friday afternoon starting at 1:00 pm will include a tour of the new store recently opened, and there will also be a meeting held for social justice representatives. Friday evening will include an agenda with speakers followed by Vincentian family time. Workshop and agenda information will follow later this month as details are finalized.

NATIONAL AGA An amazing National AGA was held June 19 – 22 in Windsor. Thank you to those who attended and took valuable information back to share with Councils and Conferences. Attendees benefited from:

• Selection of informative workshops on Thursday <\li>
• Guest speakers who spoke on a variety of topics <\li>
• Youth activities providing the opportunity to experience interaction with persons in need <\li>
• Hearing from the International President <\li>
• Spiritual Advisors and Youth Event that included a tour of Gleaners, who provide support for North of 60 and First Nations Outreach, followed by lunch and sharing with other faith based and secular groups <\li>
• Witnessing the installation of our new National President, Claude Bedard, and new National Spiritual Advisor, Archbishop Sylvain Lavoie
Thank you to Penny Craig and the Planning Committee in Windsor who provided great hospitality and did a wonderful job managing all the logistics, transportation, food and much, much more.

You can review the Annual Report, financial statements, workshop and speaker presentations at https://www.ssvp.ca/2019-aga.

Donations can now be made on the National website and directed to a specific Conference and Council by clicking on the red “Donate” button. Once National receives the donation, they will contact the Conference or Council who received the donation in order to facilitate the transfer of funds.

Flooding affected a number of communities in Canada last spring. Vincentians from affected areas will soon be receiving numerous requests for help from families reintegrating into their home or moving to other locations. The concerned conferences do not have the necessary funds to respond to the additional demand and, therefore, National Council is asking Councils and Conferences across the country to make a gesture of solidarity and send a donation to the National Council to financially support these conferences, who will then be better able to meet the needs. A donation can be made on the National website or a cheque mailed to the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul, National Council of Council, 2463 Innes Road, Ottawa ON K1B 3K3. Please note the donation is for “National Emergency Program”.

WORLD DAY OF THE POOR
Pope Francis has declared the Third World Day of the Poor to be November 17, 2019. His message is the hope of the poor shall not perish forever.

National Council will be creating promotional materials for the World Day of the Poor Campaign to be used by Conferences, Councils and SSVP Stores to help raise awareness, which will be available on the National website mid-August.

FAMILY OF PARISHES
I met with a representative from the Diocese of London to discuss how the Family of Parishes will impact the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul. I was advised that the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul will continue doing the good work of serving persons in need within each Parish affected by the Family of Parishes, and there will be no change with the financial collections for the Society. The Society will continue to do our screening process as outlined in the Operations Manual. Please email linda@ssvp.on.ca if your experience with a Family of Parishes is affecting the work you do with the Society.

TWINNING
ONRC recently funded a twinning project “La Cebeita Community Project” for $9,600 to provide water to a community in Nicaragua, which brought a sense of community and hope to those involved.

ADVOCACY
Please take action regarding the “Transitional Child Benefit” cut scheduled to take effect November 1, 2019. Copy and paste the paragraph at the end of the document to email to Minister Todd Smith. Together, we can make a difference advocating for persons in need.

STORES
Brant PC opened a new SSVP store and the store blessing took place recently with Bishop Crosby.

VINCENTIANS WITH 30 YEARS SERVICE
Please provide names of Vincentians with more than 30 years of service to linda@ssvp.on.ca as we want to recognize these amazing Vincentians. Thank you to those who have already submitted names.

Feel free to contact linda@ssvp.on.ca or sarah@ssvp.on.ca at any time should you have questions.

Thank you for all the amazing work you do across Ontario reaching out and helping persons in need.

Linda Dollard
President