Young people are an integral part of the SSVP in Scotland and around the world. Younger members are given the opportunity to use their gifts and talents to serve others, developing themselves socially and spiritually. They operate just like a parish SSVP Conference in that they meet together regularly to pray, spend time together and plan their work. Young people of all ages are involved in a wide variety of work including appeals for clothes and food to visiting nursing homes and doing soup runs.
Mini Vinnies are SSVP groups for young people (P4-P7) in Catholic primary schools and local parishes
Senior Vinnies are SSVP groups for young people (S1-S6) in Catholic secondary schools and local parishes
SSVP 1833 are SSVP groups for young adults (aged18-35) in parishes and at Universities and Colleges
REFLECTION ON ADVENT AND CHRISTMAS 2025
Mini Vinnies and Senior Vinnies groups are always busy doing things to help those in need We asked primary and secondary schools to tell us about what special activities they had been taking part in over advent and Christmas. We had a great response. The following examples are just some of the great work happening in schools across Scotland
Many thanks to all of the young people for their great volunteering; and thanks to all of the teachers for their help suporting the groups.
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace
Isaiah 9: 6
CHRISTMAS 2025
St Fillan’s Primary School, Houston
Diocese of Paisley
At St Fillan's Primary School our Mini Vinnies group organised a reverse advent tree Our children and families selected a tag from the tree and gifted the items to support the local Renfrewshire Toy Bank.
St Mary’s Primary School, Cumbernauld
Archdiocese of Glasgow
At St Mary's we have been involved in some community events such as singing at the local care home, singing in our local town centre, collecting tins for our local food bank and having a movie day where we bring a toiletry to donate to the food bank.
Holy Family Primary School, Mossend
Diocese of Motherwell
At Holy Family Primary School we organised a winter coat appeal in September The Mini Vinnies asked the school children to bring in their pre-loved warm coats which will be stored in the school and given to children who need a coat.
They also organised a Kindness Day in the school They pitched the idea at our school assembly and organised lots of kindness activities for children to do in class
SACRED HEART PRIMARY SCHOOL FALKIRK
Our Mini Vinnie group at Sacred Heart Primary School has been involved in many different activities since the start of the new school session This included:
- A fundraising tuck shop for all pupils
- Supporting our local Rotary club by decorating and packing shoeboxes with Christmas gifts for children in Romania,
- A Toy/ Book/ Game fundraising sale
- Organising a school Harvest Festival and delivering “food goody bags” to people in our church and in our local community
- Setting up our school Christmas Crib which is 62 years old
- Setting up our mini altar for school assemblies
- Singing and entertaining elderly parishioners at Sacred Heart parish SVDP Christmas lunch.
Archdiocese of St Andrew’s and Edinburgh
St Thomas Aquinas Secondary Glasgow
Archdiocese of Glasgow
The Senior Vinnies have been busy hosting a stall at Parents’ Evenings and some lunchtimes, to promote the work that our fabulous team has been doing This has included making peace beads, filling shoe boxes with Christmas gifts for homeless and local charities
We have also launched an Advent Campaign- #Make Me A Channel of Your Peace where staff and pupils have said what they’re going to do to promote peace this Christmas season This clip will be ready to post soon on our new social media page
ST DAVID’S PRIMARY SCHOOL, AIRDRIE
Diocese of Motherwell
All of Saint David’s Mini Vinnies went on a pilgrimage to Saint Mary’s church in Caldercruix We walked up the cycle path from Plains to Caldercruix and when we go to Saint Mary’s, we took our shoes off like they do on real pilgrims Then we walked around the church, we prayed and then sat and listened to Father Bergin talk about how holy and good we were for doing this pilgrimage in advent this holy year All the Mini Vinnies enjoyed the walk very much
Some of us helped make up Christmas hampers with the adults of St David’s St Vincent de Paul
We know that our actions this advent will help other people in need of some extra help this Christmas season and bring joy to others with the gift of giving The hampers consisted of food and drinks for people in our community
ST BARTHOLOMEW’S COATBRIDGE
Diocese of Motherwell
The Mini Vinnies did a Christmas campaign to collect baby items for the Innocents Society These will be delivered before Christmas for any new baby and mum who needs them They also printed their own Christmas cards for the residents at Blair House care home
ST CHARLES’ PRIMARY SCHOOL, CAMBUSLANG
As part of Catholic Education Week, our newly formed group of P6 Mini Vinnies organised a dress down day called 'Foodbank Friday' where children donated items for the local foodbank instead of a monetary donation We were overwhelmed by the amount of donations we received
Diocese of Motherwell
ST JOHN’S SECONDARY SCHOOL, DUNDEE
The Senior Vinnies pupils from St John’s High School, Dundee have been collecting long-life food and toiletries to be distributed by the SSVP conference at St Mary’s, Lochee. Senior Vinnies also supported the foodbank drop-in Christmas party run by the St Pius X conference in Douglas, serving food, distributing gifts, and providing musical entertainment! A great time was had by all Diocese of Dunkeld
Our Mini Vinnies within St Patrick’s Primary recently gathered for a special Advent service where they proudly received their certificates and badges from members of the local parish St Vincent de Paul Society
During the celebration, the children presented the school’s foodbank collections and donated the funds raised in our recent school fundraiser It was a meaningful occasion that highlighted their commitment to helping others during this Advent season
ST PATRICK’S PRIMARY, DENNY
Archdiocese of St Andrew’s and Edinburgh
ST. JOHN'S PRIMARY SCHOOL, PORT GLASGOW
Diocese of Paisley
At St John's Primary School, Port Glasgow, our Mini Vinnies have been working hard to fundraise to help the poor this term We collected lots of donations of toiletries to give to the homeless, in partnership with our St Vincent De Paul Conference
OUR LADY AND ST ANNE'S PRIMARY, HAMILTON
The Mini Vinnies at Our Lady and St Anne's Primary visited the local care home and entertained the residents with some Christmas carols They have also made cards for neighbours and created their own acts of kindness advent calendars
Diocese of Motherwell
ST COLUMBA'S PRIMARY, OBAN
Diocese of Argyll & the Isles
The Mini Vinnie Group from St Columba's Primary in Oban had a lovely time entertaining the residents of Eadar Glinn, a local care home on the 4th of December
They organised for our school choir to sing and Irish dancers to do a lovely reel and our visit was finished off with a fantastic performance on the bagpipes from one of our school captains! The children really enjoyed their visit and were made so welcome!
ST MARY’S PRIMARY SCHOOL, LARGS
Diocese of Galloway
Mini Vinnies from St Mary's Primary in Largs, have enjoyed the daily Acts of Care Each morning in December our Mini Vinnie Pupil Leadership Group have been using our school ‘Bing Bong’ to announce a suggested daily ‘Act of Care’ as we celebrated this festive season The children did a wonderful job, inspiring their friends to do ‘Acts of Care’ for others each day Thanks to the SSVP Scotland Youth for providing this resource
ST PATRICK’S, PRIMARY, SHOTTS
Diocese of Motherwell
Mini Vinnies at St Patrick’s Primary school put together an advent calendar of care to collect items for the local foodbank During particular days of advent they collected themed items such as tinned goods, dried goods and toiletries
The Mini Vinnies at St Michael’s have been busy throughout advent They hosted a Mini Vinnies ceremony and served at the Seniors lunch which they hosted. They all created Christmas cards to give to our visitors and spread some Christmas cheer at this special time
ST MICHAEL’S PRIMARY MOODIESBURN
Diocese of Motherwell
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ST MAURICE’S HIGH SCHOOL, CUMBERNAULD
Archdiocese of Glasgow
The Senior Vinnies at St Maurice’s High school, we have had several fundraising events, including a staff bake off With the proceeds, we were able to fill fifty Christmas gift bags with gifts for children in our local area who are vulnerable or struggling financially or socially The children we buy gifts for are nominated by our catchment primary schools
In addition to this, we also made up 56 bags of toiletries, essentials and small treats for the Wayside club These gift bags will be given out to our friends who attend the Wayside club at the annual Christmas lunch, hosted by Archbishop Nolan
It has been very busy, but we got there eventually!
ST DAVID'S PRIMARY SCHOOL, JOHNSTONE
The Mini Vinnie's at St David's Primary School have been spreading Christmas cheer during advent The group formed their own choir and visited the local care home and sing some Carols, they also performed at the local Tesco raising money for our Community charity fund We would like to wish all of our fellow Vincentians a happy and Holy Christmas Diocese of Paisley
ST ANDREW'S PRIMARY
SCHOOL
CUMBERNAULD
Archdiocese of Glasgow
St Andrew's Mini Vinnies Cumbernauld led the 1 Advent Mass and organised the blessing of the Travelling Cribs They also made some reindeer dust to sell in order to raise money for those in need in their local area
ST BLANE’S PRIMARY
SCHOOL
GLASGOW
Archdiocese of Glasgow
The Mini Vinnnies group at St Blane’s Primary School in Summerston volunteered over advent by collecting 17 food bags which they donated to St Gregory’s foodbank.
ST ATHANASIUS PRIMARY SCHOOL, CARLUKE
St Athanasius' Mini Vinnies organised a reverse advent calendar for our local foodbank They collected items throughout advent and delivered the goods to our local foodbank. We also collected Mars bars which were wrapped and delivered to the Wayside Club to be given to the homeless
Diocese of Motherwell
ST PATRICK’S PRIMARY
SCHOOL, STRATHAVEN
Diocese of Motherwell
Members of the Mini Vinnies Group from St Patrick’s Primary in Strathaven helped at the local SSVP conference’s pre-loved jewellery sale at the school Fayre
They helped to raise £150 to help those in need
HOLY FAMILY PRIMARY
SCHOOL, KIRKINTILLOCH
Archdiocese of Glasgow
Mini Vinnies at Holy Family Primary School, Kirkintilloch presenting 93 selection boxes they collected to be distributed at the Ozanam Centre They are photographed with the SSVP President of Holy Family and St Ninian’s Conference
SSVP 1833 GLASGOW UNIVERSITY
Archdiocese of Glasgow
The SSVP 1833 group at the University of Glasgow created, printed and sold their own Christmas cards this year This was done as a fundraiser to support their street outreach work to support individuals experiencing homelessness in Glasgow
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