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Waunakee’s Tribune Best of Waunakee Awards:

 

Kickoff for National Homelessness Awareness Month

On November 2nd, National Homelessness Awareness Month began. At an awareness event in the State Capitol, various speakers addressed the prevalence of homelessness in Wisconsin and the need for government, agencies and individuals to come together to find better solutions. Along with community and statewide school leaders working to end homelessness, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Program Director Priscilla Lentini worked to put on this event.

At the event, a Ribbon Tree visually represented the estimated number of people who experience homelessness in a year. Each ribbon accounted for 1,000 individuals. Here is data on youth and young adults facing homelessness in a year:

Press release

The kickoff event for National Homelessness Awareness Month is at the Wisconsin State Capitol rotunda on November 2, 2022 at 11:30AM. Speakers will range from state representatives addressing the concerns of homelessness in Wisconsin to individuals speaking about their lived experience of homelessness. Through their voices and stories we can learn about ways we can make a difference in our community. This event is an opportunity to build much needed awareness of the homeless crisis in our state and local communities and we hope we can come together to find better solutions.

The November 2 kickoff event at the State Capitol will also feature a Ribbon Tree designed to showcase and measure the different types of homelessness experienced in Wisconsin. 

“Young people often have innovative survival strategies that make many assume that youth homelessness does not exist. This includes sleeping with friends, strangers, engaging in survival sex, or couch-surfing across state lines. Unfortunately, our systems don’t always identify these survival strategies as homelessness,” said Rachel Litchman, member of the Youth Action Board of Dane County, who will be one of the speakers at the Nov. 2 event.

“Housing is a human right, and no person in our state deserves to struggle with the stress of finding affordable housing or experiencing homelessness. We know that safe and secure housing is essential for strong families and strong communities, yet too often are inaccessible,” said Wisconsin State Senator Melissa Agard, who will also be speaking at the event.

According to another scheduled speaker, Michael Basford, Director of the Wisconsin Interagency Council on Homelessness, “Homelessness and housing insecurity happens all over Wisconsin – regardless of area of the state and whether it’s urban, suburban, or rural areas. This is an issue that has always required an all-hands-on-deck response if we’re going to end homelessness as we know it in this state.”

A collection of articles, videos and stories from local news stations on the Society of St. Vincent de Paul — Madison.

Baldwin-Williamson Street Project

Madison.com: The changing face of Willy Street: St. Vincent de Paul to demolish 3 buildings by thrift store

Sun Prairie Star: St. Vinny’s to break ground on new facility March 13

Greater Madison Chamber of Commerce: St. Vincent de Paul — Madison announces the groundbreaking for its new building

Sun Prairie Star: St. Vinny’s breaks ground on new Madison thrift store

InBusiness: St. Vincent de Paul — Madison breaks ground on expanded thrift store

NBC15: St. Vincent de Paul of Madison breaks ground on store expansion project

Channel3000: (begin video at 08:30) News 3 Now at Five – March 13, 2023

The Catholic Herald: St. Vincent de Paul breaks ground on new renovations

Thrift stores

Channel3000: The ultimate guide to secondhand shopping in Madison

NBC15: Madison thrift store kicks of record event

The Cap Times: How to ‘buy nothing’ and join Madison’s sharing economy 

The Badger Herald: Sustainable fashion options to fill your summer wardrobe

Madison365: Shop St. Vinny’s Thrift Stores to help your budget, help your planet and help you neighbors in need

WMSN Fox47: Get rid of bulky furniture with ease and help your community with St. Vincent de Paul

Charitable pharmacy

Madison365: St. Vincent de Paul Charitable Pharmacy provides life-saving prescriptions and medications for low-income clients

Clothing + furniture vouchers

Channel3000: 12 Days of Giving — The Kight family

Microlending

The Cap Times: St. Vincent de Paul offers microloans to compete with payday lenders

City Cast Madison: (begin listening at 08:32) https://link.chtbl.com/2qx8AQiS?sid=madison.minutes

Food pantry

Wisconsin State Journal: Already reeling from inflated food costs, families now face Foodshare cuts

Wisconsin Public Radio: Food pantries experiencing extremely high demand this holiday season

Madison.com: More demand, higher prices: Madison food pantries feel the pinch of inflation

PBS Wisconsin: Inflation hits Wisconsin food pantries and the families they support

Madison.com: ‘We haven’t hit the ceiling yet;’ Dane County food pantries worried about record demand

Madison365: Area food pantries report record demand, need donations

WKOW-27: Area food pantries report record demand, decreasing donations

Catholic Herald: Record demand at Dane County food pantries

Sun Prairie Star: Increased demand stressing area food pantries, including Sun Prairie’s

The Badger Herald: Dane County food pantries see record demand

Madison Commons: Dane County food pantries facing more demand than ever before

WORT 89.9 Food pantries struggle to keep up with demand 

NBC15: Increased food need exhibited by high demand at Dane County food pantries

InBusiness: Area food pantries report record demand

Channel3000: Dane County food pantries see record high demand

Middleton Cross Plains Times-Tribune: Demand Up at Food Pantries Around the Area, Donations Needed

Member conferences

Channel3000: Society of St. Vincent de Paul holds winter blanket drive

WKOW-27: St. Vincent de Paul hosting annual Recycle the Warmth Blanket Drive

Sun Prairie Star: St. Vinny’s to host ‘Recycle the Warmth’ drive January 27-29

Catholic Review: At National Assembly, members of Society of St. Vincent de Paul urged to renew commitment to home visits

Volunteers

Catholic Herald: St. Vincent de Paul honors dedicated volunteers

Read how your care, your compassion and your encouragement helped neighbors in need. Our periodic newsletter shares success stories of people using our food pantry, pharmacy, men’s housing program and other services.

Background, Plans & FAQ

The Society of St. Vincent de Paul — Madison will conduct a building project near the intersection of Williamson Street and S. Baldwin Street in Madison. The zone currently hosts the St. Vincent de Paul Williamson Street Thrift Store and the St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Program office.

The intent is to demolish two structurally compromised buildings along Baldwin Street – as well as the Williamson Street store’s book room, which shares the lot with one of those buildings. A two-story building at the Baldwin Williamson corner will be erected and a single-story building will be expanded retail space, while the new corner building’s second floor will house the St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Program, supportive services for single parents of minor children to stabilize their housing and lives. 

Background And FAQs

Current Plans and Renderings

Brief history

The core mission of the District Council of Madison – Society of St. Vincent de Paul is helping Dane County neighbors in need. A nonprofit 501(c)(3) charitable organization, the Society has been engaged in that mission in Madison since 1925 and has had a physical locus in the Williamson-Marquette neighborhood since 1941, when SVdP Madison opened a store on Baldwin Street. From that location, St. Vincent de Paul’s retail and service complex grew organically around the Baldwin corner to Williamson Street to become the Society’s local flagship thrift store. The parcel at the corner of Williamson and Baldwin streets has since served as the Society’s busy food pantry and then as the office location of the Seton House women’s transitional housing program – as well the site of the adjoining Willy Street store’s book room.

The Williamson-Baldwin corner property and the original Baldwin Street portion of the thrift-store complex have clearly reached their end of life. SVdP Madison has been advised that the corner “Seton 2” building, an old balloon-frame structure, is not sound enough to salvage and remodel. Compromised wooden roof trusses of the Baldwin retail property have led the Society to empty that space and leave it unused for its usual purpose. The century-old concrete structure of the Baldwin store space is of unknown design capacity. After carefully considering options, St. Vincent de Paul is seeking to rebuild in the footprint of these two parcels. New construction designed to sensitively honor the look and feel of the local traditional shopping street and historic district will best serve the interest of safety, modern code compliance, energy efficiency, sustainability, and avoidance of unintended consequences.

These are key objectives for the future of properties SVdP Madison intends to continue using for purposes toward which the site has long been put. Those purposes are supporting and meeting the Society’s mission by selling and giving away donated goods and by offering other charitable services to local households in need. Through new, historically sensitive construction, SVdP Madison’s plan is to devote almost all first-floor space to retail and – for the corner – parcel create second-floor space focused on serving neighbors in need through SVdP Madison charitable programming.

Construction progress

St. Vincent de Paul Charitable Pharmacy has COVID-19 vaccines and information, for free! We also have flu shots available. Schedule your appointment to protect yourself, your family and the ones you love. Click the link below or call (608) 292-2549 to schedule your COVID-19 vaccine. We have resumed our COVID-19 testing. You can also refer here for testing locations in Dane County. What to do if you test positive.

Schedule your COVID-19 vaccine here.

Schedule your COVID-19 test here.

 

Do you need a ride to your COVID-19 vaccine appointment? Through Uber, we can pick you up. Please call: (608) 268-0355.

St. Vincent de Paul Charitable Pharmacy is open:

St. Vincent de Paul Pharmacy is committed to keep their doors open. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Charitable Pharmacy staff and volunteers have kept doors open, provided free medications, COVID-19 vaccines and information to Dane County neighbors in need.

Click Continue Reading for more information about the election of our own local Society of St. Vincent de Paul CEO as the national president of our organization.