As we enjoy these beautiful summer days, we forget that it won’t be too long until it is time to turn on the furnace and warm up the house.  Once again, St. Vincent de Paul-Detroit has been awarded money to help eligible persons or families with energy assistance.  This year the grant is 5 million dollars.  We are awaiting the word on when the training will be offered to SVdP volunteers to write the applications and how soon the funding will be available.  In the past, St. Clare has started working with clients in late October and continued until the money runs out—usually in late May.
 
In August however, the  SVdP Central Office let us know that some money in the 2015-2016 MEAP grant  had gone unused by other agencies and we were invited to help spend it!
There were 43 calls to our SVdP Assistance line last month, including several people requesting assistance paying their DTE bill.  It was a pleasant surprise to be able to easily assist them with the “left-over” funds.
 
We also did a home visit to a family in need of bunk beds.  Our conference is able to get mattresses and foundations through our SVdP Thrift stores, but if anyone has a set of bunk bed frames, please let us know and we will pass them along.  You may contact Barb at [email protected] or leave a message on our assistance line at 313-647-5062.