Those who follow the way of St. Vincent de Paul, in this example members of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, are used to listening to people living in poverty tell their stories. This could be on a daily or weekly basis depending on their level of involvement, and especially happens during home visits. A psychologist writes: “When you hear a good story, you develop empathy with the teller because you experience the events for yourself. This makes sense. Stories should be powerful. They helped us share information long ago, before we had a written language and Wikipedia.” Yes, and now we have YouTube and Vimeo– so let’s share our stories. Here are some good ones from people helped by the Society of St. Vincent de Paul of Dayton, in their own words.