Seeing Christ in the poor and serving Christ in the poor has helped Helen O’Shea sustain her volunteering since she began with the St Vincent de Paul Society (SVP) as a local parish conference member 20 years ago.
Her Christ-centred approach to volunteering has sustained a vocation that has led her to become chair of trustees for <a href="https://int.depaulcharity.org/about-us/"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">Depaul International</mark></a> – the parent charity of the Depaul Group, a network of charities that works across the world with a mission to end homelessness and change the lives of those affected by it – as well as a trustee of SVP too.
When she first began with the SVP, she was a mum of three young boys under four years old, which was “quite a handful as you can imagine”, she says. She was inspired by a call to action that came from a pulpit address, and decided to give half a day each week to serving the SVP with bookkeeping in the office.
From there she followed in the footsteps of her mother and joined as a conference member with her local parish SVP group, visiting the lonely and providing emotional and practical support to those who are need in her local community – work that she continues today.<br><br><strong>RELATED: <a href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/st-vincent-de-paul-society-calls-on-labour-government-to-address-increasing-poverty-rates/?swcfpc=1"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">St Vincent de Paul Society calls on Labour government to tackle increasing rates of poverty</mark></a></strong>
Having trained and worked as a barrister in the UK and Rome before turning to freelance work, she found that working with and for local people and members of her church, and the collaboration involved, opened a window in her soul that would allow her to live out her faith.
While helping with bookkeeping for the SVP, the charity's CEO Elizabeth Palmer spotted O’Shea’s talents for writing and invited her to involve herself in fundraising, carrying our research and writing grant applications.
As her children grew, so too did the volume of O’Shea’s volunteering. Three young boys would soon be three young men, and two decades later Helen became the SVP’s first female national president in nearly two centuries while maintaining her conference-level activity.
This lead her to be invited to get involved in another Vincentian Family organisation, Depaul UK, helping people deal with the effects of homelessness, and bring about systemic change to reduce homelessness.<br><br><strong>RELATED: <a href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/how-we-treat-people-in-prison-is-a-reflection-of-our-society-and-ourselves-as-followers-of-christ/?swcfpc=1"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">Our prisons are in crisis: our new government must act</mark></a></strong>
From there, O’Shea has gone on to become chair of the trustees of Depaul International, travelling globally and working with organisations such as the United Nations to incorporate an end to homelessness in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
The three young men that O’Shea had raised all went on to volunteer with the SVP, stepping up during Covid to fill the gap and help with food projects for those too vulnerable to help themselves.
One of her sons used his university studies to write a paper on slum dwelling for the <a href="https://vfhomelessalliance.org/about-the-alliance/"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">FamVin Homeless Alliance</mark></a>, and together mother and son travelled to Manilla with Depaul International to take part in an international conference on slum dwelling and homelessness alleviation.
Of her family and their response to her passion for her volunteering, O’Shea says: “They live with it, and they just accept that it is the right thing to do; if you can use your time and talents to volunteer in some way then that’s what you do.”
From juggling the demands of family to strategy work aimed at ending homelessness and loneliness, O’Shea believes that what helps inspire her to keep going is the empathy and compassion that comes from meeting people individually, and seeing Christ in them.
All the while, her faith and prayer are the source of her work: “At Depaul we start every meeting with a Vincentian reflection, reading and contemplating a Vincentian Saint – St Vincent de Paul, Louise de Marillac, Rosalie Rendu, Frederick Ozanam – and relating their spirituality and teaching to action."
She explains that the prayer of quiet reflection allows her to connect with her heart, and provides a good basis from which to approach those she works with as well as the hard cases she encounters at SVP and Depaul International.
This could, for example, be an individual who has recently had their benefits sanctioned or delayed, or who has just lost their home – terrible situations that can effect families and children. In such complex and difficult situations, prayer and quiet reflection can help her cultivate the compassion and understanding to prepare herself for meeting that person and identifying how best to help them.
With that foundation of prayer, she helps many SVP beneficiaries as part of her local parish conference group, visiting the lonely, providing practical assistance like food and furniture for individuals and families, and being a friendly, accompanying presence to those people who sometimes have no one else to turn to.
As Depaul International Chair of Trustees, she also works at governance level, developing and setting strategy and overseeing governance and related areas.
These two contrasting aspects of her volunteering work, the grass-roots based work alongside other volunteers to befriend and help clients face to face on an individual basis; while also working as a trustee and chair at the more macro level, are crucial to Helen.
She explains that the embracing of the two differing levels helps fulfil her need to both see systemic change take place in the UK and internationally – SVP has a presence in over 160 countries and Depaul International is a global organisation – and also to keep in touch with those people whom ultimately the charities are seeking to support and benefit; and to not lose sight of the actual and very real faces of those who struggle with the effects of poverty and injustice.
Prior to volunteering, Helen worked as a barrister. Her heart has always been set on justice, and the combination of seeing the campaigning work of her charities and their global impact, and being part of the Vincentian Family while having a direct connection with people on the ground as a conference volunteer, it all helps quench and refresh Helen’s longing to see greater justice for those in need.
“It’s about seeing people as individuals” she says, “and getting to know what is going on for them, their hopes and their aspirations”.
That’s what the Vincentian Family do all over the world, she says, to help see and serve Christ in the poor. And in doing so we can be Christlike to those we help.
Poverty, she explains, isn’t just about material or emotional lack and need, it’s about our interconnectedness, it’s the vulnerability we have around being connected and needing others – of being human.
“We all need each other”, O’Shea says, “and in volunteering I am expressing my faith, and witnessing Christ for and with the communities I work with”.<br><br><em>Photo: Helen O’Shea. (Image courtesy <a href="https://int.depaulcharity.org/about-us/"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">Depaul International</mark></a>.)</em>
