South Central Indiana District Report: December 2025

District Meetings:

• October 7, 2025 – District Meeting Held in Nashville, Indiana
• December 9, 2025 – Upcoming District Meeting

Attendance at the October 7th District Meeting:

• Jim Clerc, President, District
• Linda Dickerson, Volunteer, North Vernon
• Shirley Boardman, Secretary, District
• Pat Dickerson, Treasurer, North Vernon
• Jeana Kapczynski, President, Martinsville
• Sue Hammans, Treasurer, Martinsville
• Dr. Tom Kapczynski, Volunteer, Martinsville
• Rolly Hammans, Martinsville
• Frankie Tucker, Spiritual Director, Brown County
• Steve Keucher, Vice President, District & Treasurer of Bloomington Conference
• Dave Rossi, President, Seymour
• Steve Goebel, President, Shelbyville (zoom)
• Dean Lopez, Out Going President, Martinsville
• Carol Nathan, Brown County, Volunteer
• Marilyn Clerc, President, Columbus
• Edmund McGarrell, President, Brown County
• Dave Rossi, President, Seymour
• Cheryl Orr Dixon, Volunteer, Brown County

Annual Reports:

• 8 of 8 Conferences have finalized their annual reports
• 6 of 6 Special Works have finalized their reports

New Conference Formation – Dearborn County:
All Saints Parish in Guilford is proceeding with formation of a new SVdP Conference with active support from Father John Hollowell. Ozanam Orientation training was presented there on October 25th with thirty-three (33) people attending. Mandy Stenger has agreed to serve as interim president and the group is discerning who will serve in other conference leadership roles. The group held its first meetings on November 9th and 10th and plans to hold its next meeting on December 2nd and 3rd. One area of Vincentian service that members of the group have expressed interest is Home Visits in their area. There is also an existing SVdP conference in southern Dearborn County at St Mary Parish in Aurora IN. The Cincinnati Council would like to keep their relationship with the St Mary Conference. They believe the relationship is strong and beneficial, and the closeness is an important factor.

Our conference continues to see significant levels of charitable works assistance provided to neighbors-in-need. In August and September, we provided over 194 hours of Vincentian service (primarily in-person visits) and over 765 miles travelled to provide that service. This service affected 97 family households (162 adults and 44 children) in our community. Our financial support for neighbors-in-need during this period, primarily for rent assistance and utilities, totaled over $26,136 with additional in-kind assistance worth over $2433. This is made possible by the generous support of the parish including 5th Sunday collections and the additional funds provided by the Parish.

For Systemic Change, we started our 6th Round of Changing Lives Forever in our community in mid-September. We started with 14 investigators at the beginning of this round which consists of 18 sessions. We are planning to offer a 7th Round of Changing Lives Forever in Spanish starting in mid-January and would welcome input and involvement from parishioners who are interested.

For spiritual development, our conference will be using ‘A Culture of Welcome’ for our development and we plan to conduct a parish-wide “Called To Serve” recruitment effort, to hopefully build membership and awareness of what it means to be a Vincentian.

We have been open three days a week and have this past month started opening 4 days a week (Monday-Thursday). Things are starting to get bak together after being closed from the fire.

We reach out and help in many ways such as Hope Resources, Becky’s lace etc. providing many clients with clothing, utilities, rent and anything else that is needed. This also keeps us in contact with the Trustee and the many churches and organizations with which we work. Thank you to your organization and your many ways of helping us.

Activity:
Main news: Our Conference was one of 52 to receive a grant from the Sacred Heart Fund. We applied for and received $50,000 for rent and utility assistance for clients. This will allow us to increase the amount of aid per client per instance to $250 and the grant should last for 9-10 months.

Blessing Tree: St. Vincent de Paul and Salvation Army began registration for the 2025 Blessing Tree, a community collaboration to ensure that Brown County children in need receive a memorable gift. Registration is on-line: BlessingTreeBrownCounty.org The registration closes on October 31. Once closed, volunteers will work with donors and sponsors to insure that a gift is purchased based on each child’s wish list. The Brown County Presbyterian Fellowship will host the distribution of gifts on December 17. In December, the CYO Camp is excited to welcome back a special event for Grandparents.

Back to School 2025: We are grateful to report that the total value of redeemed vouchers was $51,192 and the value of Speedway fuel cards distributed was $2853. 886 vouchers were picked up and 865 vouchers were redeemed for a redemption rate of 98% of all vouchers being used. The average voucher was redeemed for $59.18 with families spending an additional $2500 from their funds to complete their student’s purchase. An aggressive fund raising campaign was required to meet this demand.

Food Purchase: Other than special projects, our major ongoing expense is the purchase of food which averages about $4800 per month. Food donations are unpredictable such as a full side of bacon that had to be sliced. Thanks to our community partner, Mother’s Cupboard, that allows our volunteer, John Schild, to practice his butchering skills in their commercial kitchen. John says that YouTube is his new best friend as he learns how to become an amateur butcher.

New Community Partner: We are pleased to welcome another faith community as a community partner. Members of New Life Church recently sponsored a drive to collect towels and wash cloths for distribution at SVDP. Towels and wash cloths are always in short supply and a representative of New Life Church, Jennifer Milnes, reached out to us to ask what would be helpful.

The Seymour conference continues to meet on the 4th Thursday of the month.

We’ve been pleased to have two new members join our conference. We continue to advance in the Serving in Hope program module #3. Since our last meeting, our conference has served 84 people with rent, utilities, food and motel rooms. We also provided three elementary schools with shoes and socks. This assistance resulted in an expenditure of $14,572.24. Giving that amount put our conference in a financial crisis.

Therefore, at our last meeting, we had to implement restrictions on the amount to be given out until we become more financially stable. To that extent, we have reached out to agencies in the community for assistance and secured funds to keep us afloat for the time being. Currently, the Salvation Army and Human Services are out of money for the year which puts an increased burden on us.

Our plan going forward is to have an insert placed in the Sunday bulletin the first weekend in November to explain what we do and the financial situation we’re in and ask the parish to prayerfully consider a donation on the 5th Sunday of the month in November. As we all know, God will provide!!

July – September 2025
• Income/Expense/Assistance data:

Food pantry report:
1. We have been purchasing more food and anticipate these purchases will continue to increase.
2. Plans are underway for an advent food drive, which has been very successful in the past.
3. The local Jay C donated many cases of peanut butter during September, one of the pantry’s staples, which will allow us to purchase additional high usage items.
4. A local charitable organization has pledged $1,000 for canned, shelf-stable hams, half of the donation to be used prior to thanksgiving and the remaining for Christmas.

Physical facilities report:
1. We had an accident with the outgoing double door frame of the store building, with an estimate for replacement of the frame, re-installation of the undamaged doors and a keypad lock quoted at $2,200.00.
2. There is ongoing discussion over switching both buildings to keypad locks.
3. The warehouse bathroom was renovated because of:
a. poor flooring, resulting in sanitation challenges,
b. removal of two urinals left over from VFW days, which presented sanitation challenges,
c. replacement of the toilet stool with a higher one, more appropriate for our aging volunteers.

Store report:
1. Volunteers suggested pop up sales of high volume out of season donations, which were successfully implemented.
2. The store continues to provide our local community (such as older folks raising their grandchildren) quality low-cost clothing and household items. Volunteers feel pride and satisfaction over this.
3. Our store & warehouse continue to provide opportunities for regular socialization and interaction for both customers and volunteers, both necessary for health and well-being.

Assistance:
1. After considerable debate, guidelines for assistance were adjusted:
a. Financial aid visit time frames were changed from every 90 days to every 120 days.
b. Maximum assistance (excluding food and clothing) per visit was decreased from $400 to $300.

General:
1. Some disagreement among board members over account balance.
a. Some feel as a non-profit we should not accumulate a large balance and that we should spend down considerably maintaining a minimal balance.
b. Some acknowledge non-profits in some cases maintain huge reserves for a variety of reasons.
c. Some feel assisting other conferences when in need is one rationale for maintaining a healthy balance.

Cash Raffle – 280 tickets @ $100 each were sold (max. 300). After prizes of $10,000, $2,000, and $500, & expenses, the net proceeds were $15,265. August was a 5th Sunday month, & about $4,000 was donated by parishioners.

In August & Sept. we had 51 calls, & we helped 28 households with $1,876 Rent and $3,158 Utilities. The rent assistance was less because we work closely with WellSpring, the local homeless shelter for families. They had over $80,000 in TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) funds to spend for past due rent & utilities only during the month of Sept. We referred many neighbors to WellSpring in Sept. for large bills.

In September, we were awarded a very competitive Impact Grant from the Morgan County Community Foundation of $10,000 (maximum award) to be used to help prevent homelessness for 50 households @ $200 rent assistance each.

A Bed is a Blessing – we have had grant funds for a couple of years & received another $10,300 in grants this year, so we will be able to continue this project. We are buying queen beds & bedding from Walmart for about $575 a set & will store 2 or 3 at St. Martin’s. A person-to-person visit is always first. We have a grant application pending at Raskob for our Bed is a Blessing program for 2026-27.

The Raskob Foundation gave us a free 1-year subscription worth $229 to the Catholic Funding Guide which is a searchable database of over 2,100 foundations that support Catholic organizations.

A Letter of Intent was submitted to United Way of Central Indiana for $25,000 (max.) for Rent to Prevent Homelessness. This is a special, once-a-year grant round for non-accredited (by United Way) organizations for Basic Needs. Very competitive. Per a United Way Report, Morgan County’s population is 37% ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed) & in poverty (at risk of homelessness).

Changing Lives Forever – 4 facilitators were trained in May. 1 will be training in Oct. Our small committee is on hold because our leader cares for his very ill wife. We did receive an offer of holding the sessions at the First Christian Church in Martinsville at no charge, and we continue to reach out to the community for collaboration.

Pantries – we have cut back our purchase of food & items for the Red Barn & Churches in Mission pantries in Martinsville, spending $2,350 in our 4th quarter.

We have 16 active SVDP members and meet the 2nd & 4th Mondays each month at 7 pm via ZOOM.

We had an in-person meeting on Sept. 22 to elect a new President because Dean’s 6-year term ended. Jeana Kapczynski (secretary for 6 years) was elected by secret ballot. All the other officers will continue with Kathy Metzger as the new Secretary. Deacon Dave Urbanowski will continue as Spiritual Advisor.

Jeana will meet with St. Martin’s pastor, Fr. Steve Giannini, on Oct. 9 to review our SVDP activities & request his continued support.

Here are the numbers for our conference:
Individuals helped: 147
Clothing: $257.45
Miscellaneous/houseware: $695
Furniture: $635
Food (dry/canned): $920.50
Food (Kroger/Aldi gift cards): $850
Twinning: $500
Utilities: $9035.21
Rent: $500

Business Updates from District and SVdP Indy Councils:

• Recognition of Dean Lopez: Jim Clerc offered words of gratitude to Dean Lopez for his leadership in being the lead formator of the Martinsville Conference, for success, resilience, and finding a pathway of opportunities. Also, a gift was presented. A welcome was also extended to Jeana Kapczynski who has assumed the position of President of the Conference.
• District Officers Directory: A new directory has been released with some updates especially for the St. Martin of Tours Conference.
• SVDP Indianapolis Council: The Annual Meeting was held on September 28. Slides were sent out to the Conference Presidents. Business reports were provided by Dee Delacca (Finance), Peter Zubler (Administration), Heather Snyder (Volunteers), Chris Sutton (Operations), Chrystal Wiley (LYNC) and Mark White (Mission 27 Stores).
  • A succession committee to Paul Ainslie’s position as SVdP Indy Council President continues to recruit candidates.
  • Jim Clerc has volunteered to serve as the District President of the Southern Indiana District for one year while a President is being sought.
• SVDP Indy Finances: A very conservative budget for FY26 was developed, yet, they still project a deficit and have opted to not project any “windfall” estate donations.

W-9 Forms: A reminder to provide W-9 forms for rent/services over $600. Discussion followed on the complexity being experienced by some conferences that pay a lot of rent. Identifying who the landowner isn’t always easy. Suggestion was made to Jim to discuss providing a subsequent session with Dee Delacca to clarify how to best cut through the confusion and provide her with what she needs in a way that is useful.

Annual Reports: A reminder that annual reports need to be completed on the national database by November 30, 2025.

Vision SVdP: Membership is being sought for this committee that has a May 2026 target date. We have members from Bloomington, Martinsville, and Columbus that wish to work in a team on the Membership / Recruiting topic.