Building strong communities with the help of St. Vincent de Paul

By TV Miskowski

For the past 20 years, Libby Ekre has been volunteering with, donating to, and working along St. Vincent de Paul to enrich the lives of her residents and give back to the community that makes her blessed life possible.

When Libby first encountered SVdP, she was digging deep to determine what MEB Property Managment Service’s main values and purpose would be as a founding partner. 

“Our purpose was to enrich the lives of others,” she said. “It was always about the source of home, but what about those that didn't have a home?" 

By fulfilling such an important role in a community, she knew it was important to not just provide necessities to the people around them, but to find ways to give back. 

“We want to be a great neighbor, so we really had to reach out to the community and see what the needs were,” she said. “When we saw the needs, it was so overwhelming that we partnered with SVdP.” 

For Libby and her organization, that partnership has been highlighted not just through donations supporting SVdP’s important work feeding, clothing, housing, and healing the community, but through volunteering with those services: Libby has led volunteer groups from her organizations to give their time in SVdP’s Kitchen in the past. 

Libby has also been able to partner with SVdP’s outreach services around their business locations. 

“We will call St. Vincent de Paul and have them talk to individuals in our area that really needed intense services that we couldn't provide, but SVdP provided a shelter and a home,” she said. “SVdP has people that know how to talk in a way that can really reach in a different way, just being a good neighbor and really understanding the needs that they had.” 

In leaning on the services SVdP provides, she has even found that the residents of her multifamily communities have wanted to become involved as well. 

“Our residents want to be involved in helping our neighbors too,” she said. “It’s not just our teams, but it’s building that community within a community that really helps us as humans to be able to love well.” 

Libby continues to work on building strong communities where neighbors help each other. She is proud of her team’s ability to help others and feels like she couldn’t have done it without SVdP. 

“SVdP’s does beautiful work serving our community,” she said. “Allowing me to walk out Gods purpose to care for those in need and to love well.”