Vickie Duncan, community liaison for the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, works with tornado survivors at a special event for them in November 2023. COURTESY OF SVDP
With a smile, kind word, and shoulder to cry on, SVDP community liaison there to serve
BY BELINDA ABELL, SOCIETY OF ST. VINCENT DE PAUL
The devastating 2021 tornado affected many in the Diocese of Owensboro and within the Society of St. Vincent de Paul-Diocesan Council of Western Kentucky boundaries. Four years later, St. Vincent de Paul is still serving tornado survivors and added to that group many 2025 flood survivors. A grant from the American Red Cross, churches, and your individual donations have made all this possible.
Right in the center of all of this is Vicki Duncan, our SVDP community liaison. She is often the first and sometimes only person that those affected by disaster can contact, especially when dealing with long-term recovery.
Long Term Recovery (LTR) groups are just what the name implies. They’re the ones still around when FEMA, American Red Cross, and similar organizations need to move on to the next major disaster. Just because the disaster has ended and the clean-up is almost finished, it doesn’t mean people’s lives have returned to normal or their needs met.
In the initial aftermath, she took calls throughout the day and sometimes into the night. She met with survivors where they were at, reassuring them that in time things would be back to normal. She sees to their unmet needs to the best of her ability and with the monies available to her. The requests are there and so is Vicki every day, with a smile, a kind word, and sometimes a shoulder to cry on.
“Although I’m not Catholic, I am a Vincentian and honored to do this work,” said Vicki, who served more than 600 survivor families with the national SVDP disaster services’ “House in a Box” program.
It takes a special person to be a community liaison, and in times of disaster that person is especially important. SVDP of Western Kentucky is blessed to have found that special person in Vicki.
If you would like to contribute to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, visit our website at svdpwky.org or contact Richard Remp-Morris at (270) 315-5747.
Originally printed in the November 2025 issue of The Western Kentucky Catholic.
