About the Patrician Society
Founded in 1981 to help those in need, the Patrician Society is currently focused on addressing the needs of the swelling ranks of families who are hungry and come to us for food. We also offer a summer camp for children.
In the past, we have run a men's shelter, a multi-national Hispanic support group, a senior citizens program, an after-school care center and a youth job-training program in conjunction with Temple University.
The Society's founder, Rev. Gerard McCaffrey, was a priest at St. Patrick R.C. Church in Norristown who was concerned with the growing problems in his neighborhood. Father McCaffrey, along with Franny Lawrence, Charles McPherson and Joe McLaughlin galvanized a group of fellow citizens around a simple mission: To help those in need in any way we can.
Today, the Patrician Society is a secular organization, no longer funded by the church, that receives its financial support primarily through donations and grants secured by its director and its volunteer Board of Directors.
In 2009 we served nearly 1,300 different verifiably needy families through one or more of our services.
All donations to the Patrician Society are used to provide for the basic human needs of the less fortunate among us.