Vincentian Service Corps Service Sites
A listing of the service sites for people interested in giving a year of their lives.”Responding to the call of the Gospel, in the spirit of St. Vincent de Paul, lay women and men of the Vincentian Service Corps serve those who are poor, while growing in prayer and living simply in community.”
In 1983 the Vincentian Service Corps was founded by the Vincentian priests to further the work of St. Vincent de Paul. Three volunteers formed this first VSC East community. They worked in the social ministries of Philadelphia’s Immaculate Conception Parish and lived simply in a small apartment across from the parish rectory. Since this humble beginning, the program has grown to have volunteer communities serving the poor and marginalized up and down the eastern coast.
At about the same time, another group of the Vincentian family, the Daughters of Charity, were establishing a similar program out of St. Louis, Mo. Two years later, they joined with the Daughters in Evansville, Ind. to form what is now VSC Central. Today they have ministries extending from Chicago throughout the central states to southern Texas.
The VSC West was formed in 1991 to serve northern and southern California. It began with seven volunteers who served in various agencies in and around Los Angeles. Today it continues to grow along the western coastline.
The three VSC programs work independently but cooperatively, with each placing volunteers in its own geographic area while helping the other regions in recruitment and advertising efforts.