Volunteers of America Honors Los Angeles designer Heidi Bendetson, founder of Designed from the Heart, with its 2015 Outstanding Community Service Award

For Immediate Release:

Contact: David Burch
Volunteers of America
(703) 341-5054 or dburch@voa.org

LOS ANGELES (June 30, 2015) – Volunteers of America, one of the nation’s largest and oldest human services charities, presented its 2015 Outstanding Community Service Award to Los Angeles-based interior designer Heidi Bendetson, founder of Designed from the Heart.

Volunteers of America presents its Outstanding Community Service Award each year to organizations or individuals that display outstanding service to their local communities, either through work with the local Volunteers of America affiliate or through a community project.

Designed from the Heart is a nonprofit organization dedicated to bringing the healing gift of beauty to people in need. Through Designed from the Heart, a group of dedicated volunteers donate their times, talents and heart to personally transform living spaces. Designed from the Heart volunteer interior designers worked with Volunteers of America’s Los Angeles affiliate to transform townhomes at Blue Butterfly Village – a former U.S. Navy housing facility in San Pedro, Calif., recently repurposed as affordable housing – into beautiful, individualized living spaces for homeless veterans and their children, with a particular emphasis on female veterans. For more information about Designed from the Heart, visit designedfromtheheart.com.

Approximately 600 Volunteers of America leaders and care providers from across the United States travelled to Los Angeles for the organization’s 2015 National Conference on June 27-30. Volunteers of America Greater Los Angeles serves more than 30,000 people a year through affordable housing and supportive services aimed at clients that include homeless veterans, seniors, low-income children and families, people recovering from addiction, and those re-entering communities from the correctional system.

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About Volunteers of America
Volunteers of America is a national, nonprofit, faith-based organization dedicated to helping those in need live healthy, safe and productive lives. Since 1896, our ministry of service has supported and empowered America’s most vulnerable groups, including veterans, seniors, people with disabilities, at-risk youth, men and women returning from prison, homeless individuals and families, those recovering from addictions and many others. Through hundreds of human service programs, including housing and health care, Volunteers of America helps more than 2 million people in over 400 communities. Our work touches the mind, body, heart and ultimately the spirit of those we serve, integrating our deep compassion with highly effective programs and services.