Cindy Kicklighter Photos by Michael Alexander

Barbara Sebolt

BY PRISCILLA GREEAR

Staff Writer

ATLANTA--The St. Vincent de Paul Society (SVDP) has hired new development and communications directors to help raise awareness of its mission and fulfill a five-year strategic development plan.

Cindy Kicklighter, director of communications, began working in October in a newly created position and Barbara Sebolt became development director in September. They will help the Society implement new programs and expand existing ones following relocation of the downtown office in January 1999 to a larger facility at 2050 Chamblee Tucker Road in Doraville.

The international, nonprofit Catholic lay organization consists of 56 conferences in North Georgia and provides aid to those facing temporary hardship to help them become self-sufficient.

Sebolt, 29, earned a degree in economics with a minor in communications from The College of Wooster in Ohio and a master’s in business administration from Georgia State University. She has worked in Atlanta for two years at the Trinity School as development director and at the Marist School as development assistant. In Pittsburgh she worked for three years as public relations/development coordinator at Presley Ridge Schools, an agency for children at risk.

Sebolt’s primary goal for 1999 is to increase contributions to the Society by 47 percent, securing $730,000 from individuals, parishes, existing fund-raising programs, corporations and foundations. She will work with a newly formed volunteer fund-raising committee, led by SVDP’s former development director Nancy Sestak, whose members will solicit new funding sources. Additional committee members are needed.

Sebolt said more contributions are needed to fund SVDP’s expansion plan. New services for 1999 include The Clothes Line and a Temporary Housing Program, two new thrift stores, the Education and Skills Training Program for clients and increased communications services.

As the majority of donors are Catholic and SVDP members and 80 percent of clients served are non-Catholic, Sebolt said she hopes to increase support outside the Catholic community.

“We have a lot to offer the whole community,” she said. “Because we’re SVDP, some people don’t support us because we’re tied to the church. A goal is to expand funding sources outside the Catholic community and into the greater society.”

She also hopes to establish a central SVDP fund-raiser in which all conferences can participate.

The development director said that her father, who died in May, went hungry during the Depression and she is gratified to work for an organization which serves the needy. Contributions in her father’s memory were given to the SVDP.

“It’s a great feeling to know that what you raise money for is really going to make a difference in people’s lives,” she said.

Through communications, Kicklighter, 35, will publicize and promote the Society and its programs at parishes and in the Atlanta community, helping to attract new donors. She will standardize existing and develop new brochures and other printed materials and gather material from conferences to improve communications, promote programs and attract volunteers in parishes. SVDP will also upgrade its computer system.

She also hopes to develop an organizational video and to run an image awareness campaign using strategic messages in Atlanta print and television media.

In the coming year SVDP will “focus on continuing what we’ve done in the past, building on our foundation and being consistent--just focusing on name recognition,” Kicklighter said. “Since we’re moving into a new location it’s time to update our materials and get our story out...We realize that the Catholic population recognizes SVDP’s name, but there is a whole other group that does not recognize us so we want to enhance the image and name recognition.”

Kicklighter earned a bachelor’s degree in communications from Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, and has worked for 13 years in public relations and marketing, including as director of public relations for Rockdale Hospital and Health System, Conyers.