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Winner of the Avon Hello Tomorrow Fund - April 7, 2009
Carol Levine Honored with $5,000 Avon Hello Tomorrow Fund Award
April 7, 2009

Portland, Oregon Resident Wins Cash Award To Promote Counseling Services For Female War Veterans


(New York, NY, April 7, 2009) – Portland, Oregon resident Carol Levine, 69, is one step closer to fulfilling her dream of creating a better tomorrow for her community. Carol was named this week’s winner of the Avon Hello Tomorrow Fund, a weekly $5,000 cash award program from Avon Products, Inc. to support individuals in their work to empower women. She is the third recipient of a Hello Tomorrow Fund award in Oregon since the program launched in 2007, and was selected by an expanded panel of judges that includes Sarah Ferguson, The Duchess of York, and actress Phylicia Rashad. Carol will use her award to support the Returning Veterans Project, an organization that provides free and confidential healthcare services to veterans and their families of past and current Iraq and Afghanistan missions.

The Returning Veterans Project (RVP) is a non-profit organization whose volunteers include mental health professionals, acupuncturists, naturopaths, chiropractors, physicians, massage therapists, and other complementary health care providers. Some of RVP’s clients are referred by Veterans Affairs (the V.A.), but the V.A. cannot legally serve military spouses. The RVP believes that many wives suffer from secondary Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as a result of the trauma their husbands bring home with them. Reports show that when a family member suffers from PTSD, the entire family is affected and in extreme cases, can result in spousal and child abuse. Additionally, the divorce rate among enlisted personnel has increased 53 percent since 2005. Moreover, as this is the first time in American history that there are female war veterans, many of these women find it difficult to locate a program which offers services specifically targeted to their needs.

Carol has spent most of her life working to better her community. She is a practicing clinical social worker and continues to spend her free time volunteering for many causes that she is affected by. In the 1970’s Carol was actively involved in improving the lives of underserved children, and in the ‘80’s and ‘90’s, she counseled terminally ill AIDS patients. When the war began, Carol wanted to do her part to help and in 2005, at the age of 65, she created RVP with the mission to ensure military families are receiving therapy when they are in need. Since its start, Carol has found over 60 therapists to donate their time to counseling hundreds of patients a year. To further the awareness of this important program, Carol believes that RVP needs to expand its outreach efforts to include a more extensive advertising campaign, but like so many not-for-profits, they lack the funds to do so. That is what inspired Carol to apply for a Hello Tomorrow Fund award.

With help from the Avon Hello Tomorrow Fund, Carol will be able to create promotional materials to inform military-affiliated women in Oregon about RVP. Carol foresees these outreach efforts will result in therapy for approximately 100 women, ages 20 to 45. The funds will be used to design and print a new brochure geared specifically toward the concerns of military families, and to produce a short informational video which will appear on RVP’s Web site. The Hello Tomorrow Fund will also help RVP to hire an outreach specialist who will to travel to military communities in Oregon and conduct presentations about RVP’s services for women. Carol believes that counseling for women veterans propels the healing process and helps them regain control of their lives. “One woman recently said our work saved the life of her daughter who served in Afghanistan,” says Carol. “We know she is not the only one.”

Carol’s winning application to the Avon Hello Tomorrow Fund met the criteria of clearly presenting unique and achievable objectives to empower women or girls and ultimately improve society. It was selected from a pool of strong contenders by an expert panel of judges, including personal finance expert Suze Orman, actress Phylicia Rashad, Sarah Ferguson, The Duchess of York, and experts in business and grantmaking. “Returning Veterans Project sounds like the perfect way to help returning female veterans from Iraq & Afghanistan,” commented Lynn Stekas on Carol’s proposal. “It also seeks to help the female spouses of men returning from war, who are also forgotten.”

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