Firstly SVP is the largest provider of accommodation for homeless people in Ireland. The hostels provide a range of accommodation to meet both the long-term and short-term needs of homeless men and women. These hostels provide facilities to help/aid people to enter society i.e. education, employment, skill training and personal development.
The society provides holiday breaks for individuals and families who are unable to have one with their own funding. The holidays offered vary between bed and breakfast, holiday centres or day trips across Ireland. The younger generations are taken on camping trips and adventures and some make pilgrimages to Lourdes.
Another aspect of development is the provision of housing projects in Ireland. The projects are groups of houses and apartments placed in local areas to provide for the needs of vulnerable people or older men and women who require supported long term accommodation.
Voluntary members who provide support and a caring service for those in need of help and use the society to improve their options manage all of these schemes. People who come to SVP in need whether its financial, emotional or practical can all be assured of help because in the image of Jesus SVP celebrates compassion and open opportunity for all.
For example the SVP aim to respond to the need of every Christian to bring the love of Christ tom those in trouble – “ I was hungry and you gave me food” (Matthew 25) Therefore the main aim is to provide a service to firstly comfort and give relief but more importantly the main concern is that SVP are able to stabilize and help a person to regain normality whilst improving their living standards. All this development can then proceed to become an independent journey consequently teaching a person the fundamentals of sustaining a standard of life in a society such as today. For example paying bills on time – earning correctly – budget management. The key factor is not to patronise but to be able to fully Informed of the circumstances then being able to aid correctly.
Overall SVP are detrimental to helping those in need to regain their own normality and rebuild the link between them and society or even between them and loved ones. SVP achieve their goals as instead of people being self-destruction it improves productivity and the success of peoples lives in general. Therefore SVP do fulfil the commandment to love thy neighbour as all their work is focused on helping and giving a comfort and compassionate place to be able to grow and progress .
