OUR CHARISM & Values

Rooted in Love. Lived in Service.

Flowing from a Vincentian calling where faith leads us, love grounds us, and service defines us.

OUR CHARISM & Values

Rooted in Love. Lived in Service.

Flowing from a Vincentian calling where faith leads us, love grounds us, and service defines us.

In 2014, a network of Vincentian organisations came together to reaffirm the values that shape our approach.

This collaboration – known as Vincentian Values Today (VIVAT) – helps ensure our mission remains alive and authentic across every service and setting.

“Let us devote ourselves with renewed love to serve persons who are poor and even to seek out those who are the poorest and most abandoned; let us acknowledge before God that they are our lords and masters and that we are unworthy of rendering them our little services.” 

We believe that all people should be free to live full and dignified lives. We also believe that the people who are the poorest in our society are our priority. This “option for the poor” drives all our thinking and actions. It recognises that there are many forms of poverty, which range from acute situations to extreme material poverty. 

Our attitude to service demands that we devote ourselves to being entirely at the disposal of those we serve and place their needs at the centre of our organisations at all times. 

As Vincentian organisations, we commit to playing our part in changing the negative ways in which society views people who are living in poverty. Our aim is to create opportunities to enable the least privileged people to thrive and for each to have the opportunity to fulfil his or her potential. 

“Above all, be very gentle and courteous toward the poor. You know that they are our masters and that we must love them tenderly and respect them deeply. It is not enough for these maxims to be in our minds; we must bear witness to them by our gentle and charitable care.”

We believe that each person has intrinsic and incalculable worth, and must be treated by others accordingly. We are born equal and are all part of the same human family. 

As Vincentian organisations, we have a fundamental regard for people and their inalienable human rights. We are committed to respecting each individual who comes to us for help and each person with whom we work. When we approach another person, we believe that we are on “holy ground”. 

“Treat every individual with gentleness and respect, always using kind words and requests and never 

harsh or offensive expressions. Nothing is more capable of winning hearts than this humble, gentle way of acting, nor consequently better able to help you attain your goal.”

We believe that kindness and compassion are among the fundamental attitudes that enable us to carry out our service to people in poverty. This includes encouraging or challenging them to take opportunities for development or change – but always in a respectful and courteous manner. 

“Enable all the other poor people...to earn their own living by giving the men some tools for working and the girls and women spinning wheels and flax or linen for spinning...When peace is restored everyone will have something to do...and gradually get back on their feet.”

Vincent and Louise practised a leadership style that respected people’s capabilities and strengths, and equipped them to find their own solutions – not “doing for”, but enabling them to do for themselves. 

As Vincentian organisations, we believe in respecting people’s autonomy and seeking their full participation in making decisions. Our aim is to provide a service that engages with people who are experiencing poverty and to provide a culture in which the authority to make decisions is delegated to the most local level that is compatible with the common good. 

We commit to working with others, knowing that we, too, are transformed by those whom we serve. We attend with care to the diversity of people’s lives and aspirations. We celebrate difference. 

We work with people to facilitate change and to use their potential to transform their lives and society. 

“There is no act of charity that is not accompanied by justice...”

As Vincentian organisations, we believe that by serving people we are enacting justice and that the people with whom we work are participants in the search for that justice, not passive recipients of charity. 

We aspire to a society in which poverty is eradicated and the voices of poor people are heard and acted on. We want to ensure that people are not deprived of the conditions they need to be able to choose to live well, according to their own beliefs, values and aspirations. 

We encourage staff, volunteers and trustees to be “doers of justice” – to stand with those who are on the margins of life and to make the case for everyone to be an agent for social change, committed to building a better society. 

Solidarity with people who are in difficulty represents a true love of one’s neighbours. 

Our charism and values are not an add-on – they’re the foundation. They shape how we plan, how we respond, how we treat one another, and how we measure success.

They remind us that we are more than a collection of services; we are a Vincentian family, called to love, to serve, and to stand alongside those who are too often forgotten.