Domestic Violence Survivors Enjoy Verizon Technology During "A Night Out"
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A Night Out volunteers Shelley Skrypnyk (board member), Marla Mogul (founder), Gina Gabel (board member) and Tera Schreiber (board member) get ready for an event.
This is a guest post from Cissy Greenspan, treasurer on the board of directors of A Night Out.
A Night Out is a new nonprofit organization based in Chicago. Our mission is to provide a night of entertainment for women who are domestic violence survivors living in shelters and transitional housing. We also provide childcare for their children during events to make it possible for them to go out for an evening.
This is where a little help from phones provided by Verizon Wireless comes into play. About six months ago, Verizon provided us with two Nokia Lumia 822 Windows devices. Our goal was to use the devices to video conference via Skype at our events to allow attendees to connect with their children while enjoying a night out.
At one of our first events, we were able to pass the phone around the room and, using Skype, the women were able to see and talk to their children without leaving the dinner table! The parents were reassured their kids were fine, and the kids were delighted to see their moms. On each occasion where we've used the phones, it has been a way to ease the anxiety felt by either a mom or a child who needed that connection at that moment.
As one of the volunteers at an event, I personally saw one woman who had a three-month old (imagine how much a night out meant to her!) who really needed the reassurance of seeing her child to put her at ease. After seeing for herself that her little girl was sound asleep, she was able to enjoy herself and laugh all the way through the comedy show.
In today’s society, we all use mobile devices for random calls or checking social media, but sometimes they provide a much more necessary service. The technology from Verizon has allowed us to provide some very deserving women a much-needed night out.
We’d like to express a huge thank you to Verizon for providing us with phones to use at our events for domestic violence survivors!
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