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You voted St. Vinny’s Thrift Stores as the best around town. Thank you! And, thank you for shopping and donating. We are proud to operate quality thrift stores and bring you unique, one-of-a-kind events.

Madison Magazine Best of Madison:
Madison.com People’s Choice:
Waunakee’s Tribune Best of Waunakee Awards:
Sun Prairie STAR Best of Sun Prairie Awards

 

During November, National Homelessness Awareness Month, take a moment to learn about the realities of homelessness. In our own community, roughly 750 Madison Schools – MMSD students currently experience homelessness.

Key definitions:

  • Homelessness: “a condition in which an individual or family lacks a fixed, regular, nighttime residence; resides in a public or private residence that is not designed or intended to be a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings; lives in a supervised shelter designated to provide temporary living arrangements; and/or is at imminent risk of losing their housing and has no subsequent residence identified or resources to obtain other permanent housing.”
  • Unaccompanied youth / homeless families with children: have experienced a long term period without living independently in permanent housing, have experienced persistent instability as measured by frequent moves over such period, and can be expected to continue in such status for an extended period of time because of chronic disabilities, chronic physical health or mental health conditions, substance addiction, histories of domestic violence or childhood abuse, the presence of a child or youth with a disability, or multiple barriers to employment.

Source: Cornell Law School

Media coverage about the Society of St. Vincent de Paul — Madison.

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Baldwin-Williamson Street Project

Thrift Stores

Food Pantry

Expanded Thrift Store

Construction at St. Vinny’s Willy St is DONE! The store, donation drop-off and parking lot are now fully open.

Come shop the new space featuring:

The store is open Monday through Saturday from 10:00 am – 7:00 pm and Sunday 10:00 am – 5:00 pm.

Shop St. Vinny’s at 1309 Williamson Street, Madison, WI 53703.

Women’s clothing, main entrance and check-out

 

Check-out with dressing rooms on back wall

 

Expanded furniture section

Social Services Suite

Above St. Vinny’s Willy Street thrift store is office space for two Society of St. Vincent de Paul — Madison programs. We call this space our “Social Services Suite.” It’s a place for families to meet with case managers and human service professionals, search for job opportunities, identify affordable child care, and access additional resources. The Social Services Suite is home to our St. Elizabeth Ann Seton program and microlending program.

Community Room

 

Kid’s Room

Mural Showcases Thrift Stores + Charitable Programs

A beautiful mural now hangs in the lobby of the St. Vincent de Paul Social Services Building! Designed by Eva Pratt, St. Vinny’s Verona Assistant Store Manager, the mural showcases the connection between our thrift stores and charitable programs across Dane County. Additional thanks to Deborah Goedel, St. Vinny’s Verona Store Manager and Leighla Baney, St. Vinny’s Waunakee Assistant Store Manager, for their design collaboration.

When asked about the inspiration, Eva said, “The ideas were all of ours, we collaborated. We thought about the services that we, Society of St. Vincent de Paul — Madison, offer and talked about the history of our first thrift store on Williamson Street. It was interesting doing research on the store to understand our history. We went with a somewhat 1950s vibe with that section. I knew the St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Program was going to be upstairs in this building, so I thought that it would be a really nice visual of the mother and children walking up to people helping them. We did some preliminary sketches, looked it over all together, and came to agreement on what looked good. After that, I went for a cleaner sketch and designed the final artwork.”

Mural welcoming neighbors in to SVdP Madison Social Services Building

Building Plans

Current Plans and Renderings Background and FAQs

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.

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.

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