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News about Deserving Decor in 2011
December 11, 2011 | 
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Want to know more about Deserving Decor and our mission? We were fortunate enough to be featured in three articles in 2011.
Two of them were features on Generocity.org – Greater Philadelphia’s source for local nonprofit news, giving and networking.
A Star is Born Through Deserving Decor
Wanted: a few good men in Bucks County
This new website features greater Philadelphia area nonprofits, inspiring stories, and an easy way to give to local charities.
The third, A place to call home, was an featured in the Intelligencer and the Bucks County Courier Times.
Please read and find out about us and contact us on how you can help families living in homeless shelters in Bucks County, PA.
Image by Danilo Rizzuti
Posted in News | 
Tags: bucks, chester, county, delaware, deserving decor, donate, generocity, microgiving, montgomery, nonprofit, philadelphia | 
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National Homeless Youth Awareness
Our childhood experiences are the foundation of the beginning saga that is interwoven with our memories of family celebrations – including holidays and birthdays, which leave lasting imprints on our lives. The layers of tradition carry a scaffolding of beliefs for us to follow from parents, siblings, aunts, uncles and cousins.
All these experiences mold our sense of stability and sense of self, while preparing us to face joys and trials of life (with the understood support of each other) and more importantly, a sense of belonging. Home is where we can be ourselves and have a sense of security; our youth is not supposed to face a future devoid of these reinforcements and homelessness.
One in every three homeless individuals is under the age of eighteen!
The National Coalition for the Homeless defines homeless youth as individuals under the age of eighteen who lack parental, foster, or institutional care. It is now established that approximately two million people under the age of eighteen will experience homelessness by the end of this year.
Other dilemmas that compound this issue are the risk of facing physical assault, and unattended medical and mental health issues, which have the potential repercussion of fatality.
In the past year, approximately fifty percent of runaway youth were physically abused and seeking resolution from a difficult home environment. While one tenth of female runaways are reportedly pregnant and homeless, homeless youth are ten times more likely to contract HIV than adolescents who are not homeless.
Please watch this video about teens slipping through the cracks and into the world of homelessness. It may change your life or that of a homeless youth.
We cannot all do great things, but we can do small things with great love - Mother Teresa
Written by Cherie Watts, Deserving Decor Volunteer
Bucks County Furniture Bank – Donated Warehouse Needed
Deserving Decor is in the process of looking for a donated warehouse, buidling or house to establish a Furniture Bank for homeless shelter and newly housed homeless families in Bucks County. When families leave homeless and domestic violence shelters, they literally have nothing other than their personal belongings. The ability to provide furniture and household items is a much needed resource in Bucks County.
Like a Food Bank supplies food to the disadvantaged, a Furniture Bank provides newly housed families with furniture, including kitchen tables to share meals, sofas and chairs to sit and converse or watch TV and bed’s to sleep in. Additional furniture, household goods and home décor are also offered to make the house into a functional and attractive home. All the things that most of us take for granted.
Such provisions are gently used and donated by members of communities in Bucks County. There are many generous donors in Bucks County willing to contribute furniture and household goods; currently we have to turn them away due to the lack of adequate storage space.
We have three small donated storage units in Bucks County, not nearly enough space to fulfill the demand. In order to help the families in need of furniture and household goods, and to store the numerous furniture donation requests we receive, we are in dire need of warehouse space.
Specifically, we are interested in a accomodations in Bucks County. If you have a warehouse or building that is currently unused and are able to donate the space, and take a tax deduction for the fair market value of the space, to help fulfill this great demand, please contact us. Help us help our neighbors in need, call today!
The alternative, raise enough funding to rent a warehouse. If 1000 supporters give $10.00 each, we could rent a space for a year. Give $10.00 today to help us reach our goal and create a Furniture Bank for Bucks County!
Written by Beth Baker, Deserving Decor Founder
Being a Single Mom is a Tough Job ~ Imagine it while being homeless
Spring Decorating on a Budget
Ahh Spring!! Now if someone would remind mother nature to warm up the temperatures just a little bit. But as the Spring temperatures flip flop, there’s no better time than now to craft a few budget-friendly Spring projects to transform your living areas and bring Spring inside. You’ll be surprised what you can accomplish!
To get you started, check out the myriad of resources available with internet access, there are numerous crafting blogs, craft sites, and supplier resources are at your fingertips, “let your fingers do the walking!”
Also check your local craft store clearance sections, flea markets, or thrift shops for cute prints that you can use to craft pillows, placemats, or wall art that will transform your decor. How about the dollar store for patterned paper? Even printed wrapping paper or patterned stationary can be made into your “new favorite” budget-friendly wall art!
Look at things that you already have that can be reused in a whole new way. Free! Do you have children’s clothing that they’ve outgrown? You can reuse / repurpose those items into cute craft projects while you preserve the memories of your kids growing years.
Now onto ideas to craft any item into Spring fix-me-ups. Projects can be sewn by machine if you have access to one, stitched by hand if you know how, or made “no sew” with iron on transfer paper. Who doesn’t love that?
Budget friendly wall art that looks like a designer original? You can get it and do it yourself saving hundreds! Some foam and your favorite scrap booking paper is all you need.
http://www.favecrafts.com/Wall-Decor/Modern-Wall-Art
Or, try your hand at making your own patterned paper to frame and display…here’s how
http://www.preservedgardens.com/projects/marblepaper.htm
Freshing your home for Spring doesn’t have to cost alot of money, just get started and remember Summer’s just around the corner.
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Article by Cheryl Galowitch, Deserving Decor Volunteer
A Woman’s Place – Protection in the Storm of Domestic Violence
The ability to predict and protect oneself from violent behavior is ultimately through our own unique signals of intuition. This is the central theme of the author, Gavin de Becker, who is one of the nation’s leading experts on knowing the subtle signs of violent behavior in which he reveals reliable precursor indicators associated with spousal and dating domestic violence.
Intimate Enemies is one of his forthright chapters in his National Bestseller, The Gift of Fear in which he dispels the myth that weak or uneducated women are victims of domestic violence.
The national statistics are clear that one in four women, 25% of the female population, has experienced domestic violence in their lifetime. Women accounted for 85% of the victims of domestic violence by intimate partners according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics Crime Data Brief.
A Woman’s Place is the only domestic violence organization located in Bucks County, Pennsylvania that provides comprehensive free, private and confidential services. This dedicated organization provides support, education, outreach and advocacy to victims of abusive violence and their children in which they can only house approximately seven families for up to thirty days. They have consistently provided preventative educational programs with confidentiality since founded in 1976. Recent data shows that they have serviced 4000 individuals out of a county population of 620,000.
Many women transition from A Woman’s Place to transitional shelter apartments that Deserving Décor is committed to creating an atmosphere of creative comfort for those individuals who have suffered the loss of their homes, family structures and sense of security. In the midst of battling the reality of incredible loss of family, financial difficulties and the shame or stigma associated with domestic violence, Deserving Décor strives to give these families a glimpse of hope and stability by creating an environment of belonging that each one of us aspire to attain in our own lives.
Our journey is never clear and without struggles……..How can we raise the bar of awareness on domestic violence within our own neighborhood and contribute to our sense of community?
The journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step – Lao Tzu
Credits Written by Cherie Watts, Deserving Decor Volunteer Image: africa / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Armoire Makeovers and Updates – Do It Yourself
With the advent of the flat screen TV, armoires are easy to be found and repurposed. These armoires have been refashioned into a crafting station, a pantry, a bar, a garden shed, laundry room storage and more. Find an armoire and start your own fabulous makeover!
Armoire Makeovers and Updates – Do It Yourself
How to Turn Castoff Furniture into Attractive Furniture
Spring has sprung and it’s time for Deserving Decor to turn donated, dated furniture into attractive useful pieces of furniture to use in homeless shelters and avoid landfills.
Using paint, new hardware, fabric and elbow grease. One of our volunteers, Amy Manning, transformed this small chest from an ugly duckling to a beautiful swan.
Want to make your own swan? Visit flea markets, thrift and resale stores for diamonds in the rough and let your imagination run wild!
Before
Additional Makeover Ideas
http://www.bhg.com/decorating/makeovers/furniture-makeovers/
http://allwomenstalk.com/6-amazing-furniture-makeovers/
More Deserving Decor furniture transformations to come, keep watching for additional furniture makeovers.
Written by Beth Baker, Deserving Decor Founder
The Hidden Homeless – Middle Class Homelessness
Going through life and facing every day triumphs and dilemmas are something we all face on our pathway of life. Many of us attain our career goals through acquiring degrees or skills, starting new jobs, getting married and establish a growing family or taking a journey that is filled with hope and a vision of success.
The unexpected turn of events that disrupt our plan can encompass a whirlwind of events that halter our direction and joy of hopefulness. Sudden illnesses and the expenses that overtake our funds….the fall out of divorce….the necessity of leaving the shame and silence of a controlling, manipulative and rage filled partner in order to be safe…..losing your job and emptying all funds….paying for healthcare that will cover the cost of cancer care….
None of us are sure of our futures and each of us has the potential to fall upon difficult times. Depending upon our resources and family support, we all could be facing Hidden Homelessness.
Hidden Homelessness is in your community and the percentage of homelessness is no longer due to mental illness or an addictive personality….It is affecting college educated and middle class families. The economic downturn in recent years coupled with greater burdens of personal healthcare costs has caused a grave increase in family fallout and loss of homes.
The majorities of the individuals facing homelessness rely on family and friends, live in cheap hotels, rent rooms or live in their cars before ending up in a homeless shelter. The federal definition of “homeless” or “homeless individuals” include-
1. An individual who lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence; and
2. An individual who has a primary nighttime residence that is supervised publicly or privately operated shelter designed to provide temporary living accommodations (including transitional housing for the mentally ill, welfare hotels and congregate shelters)
What can you do to help? Everything!
“Individually, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean.” – Ryunosuke Satoro
Written by Cherie Watts, Deserving Decor Volunteer
Image: Tom Clare / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
How to Create Inexpensive Headboards ~ DIY Ideas
Pillowsham Headboards – Flint Cottage Living Examiner.com
In addition to the pillow sham headboards, we will be using other donated items to create headboards. See our inspiration ideas from Better Homes & Gardens, Cheap and Chic Headboard Projects.
Cheap and Chic Headboard Projects
Written by Beth Baker, Deserving Decor Founder