David Kennedy, who is the State President of St Vincent de Paul Society in WA, was introduced by John Gartlan
David grew up and lives in Floreat and was until 4 years ago a real estate agent
Vinnies was set up by Frederic Ozanam in 1833 in Paris and named after the famous French saint of the poor.
It is primarily for emergency relief, run as a lay catholic society, made up of dedicated men & women of all backgrounds. It operates in 150 countries around the world and involves one million people worldwide.
It provides food vouchers, financial councillors and have recently expanded to have a President’s Housing Fund to include rental assistance, payment of large bills to enable people to remain in their accommodation.
A lot of the work involves helping people who have drug & alcohol dependency &/or mental health issues.
Funding is provided by 54 shops here in WA together with organisation such as Rotary and local parishes to assists the 1.5 million people who are living in poverty.
A recent ACOSS report showed that with record increases in food, fuel, rent & utility costs, many people are really struggling 
even people with a regular income and a home are finding it impossible to cope.
even people with a regular income and a home are finding it impossible to cope.St Vincent de Paul receives 500 calls per week seeking assistance and each one is documented and a report is prepared after each visit to the respective recipient.
David received a considerable number of questions from the attendees which indicated the interest there was in his topic.