Our mission is to offer hope and service on a direct and person-to-person basis, working to break the cycles of poverty, homelessness, addiction and domestic violence.

St. Vincent de Paul Society of San Francisco runs four programs:

• The Wellness Center – offers an integrative wellness approach to recovery from addictions.  Free activities such as yoga, stress reduction, iRest meditation, tai chi and nutrition classes are offered to an average of 60 individuals a day.
• The Riley Center – provides housing and services for survivors of domestic violence.  Our Rosalie House is an emergency home for families/individuals fleeing domestic violence. And, Brennan House is longer-term housing.
• Multi-Service Center – The MSC is the largest homeless shelter (400 beds) in Northern California.  St. Vincent de Paul has a contract to run this shelter with the City of San Francisco.
• The Vincentian Help Desk – Emergency food and clothing for those in need.

The St. Vincent de Paul Society is an international organization, originally formed in Paris in 1833 by a twenty-year old student at the Sorbonne, Frederic Ozanam.  The Society has no religious affiliation, rather was modeled on the charitable acts of St. Vincent de Paul.

The national body of St. Vincent de Paul in the United States provides some structure and bylaws from which to guide local Societies.  Local societies have autonomy from National and are free to amend suggested bylaws. San Francisco amended their local bylaws in 2007 – please see attached document “bylaws 2007”. It may be helpful for the HBSCP team to review San Francisco’s bylaws to obtain their opinion as to whether our governance is optimally poised to support growth of the organization.

Project Description:

St. Vincent de Paul Society has asked an HBS Community Partners team to help develop a “Roadmap” type of strategic plan that incorporates such items as a marketing/ communications plan, additional fundraising activities, and board solicitation approaches.