Verizon Wireless National Poster Campaign Brings Domestic Violence Education to the Workplace

Verizon Wireless National Poster Campaign Brings Domestic Violence Education to the Workplace

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October 17, 2000

BEDMINSTER, NJ (October 17, 2000) -
You see it on the evening news and you read about it in the newspaper: heart-wrenching stories with painful images and alarming statistics of domestic abuse throughout our communities. Domestic violence affects 900,000 women each year in this country. As a nation, how do we begin to solve this problem?

Providing education on domestic violence awareness and prevention is an essential step in the fight to end domestic violence. Verizon Wireless, the largest U.S. wireless communications provider serving more than 26 million customers, is a leader in the corporate campaign against domestic violence. This year, Verizon Wireless is renewing its relationship with the Family Violence Prevention Fund (FVPF) to educate people where they spend the majority of their day - in the workplace.

The most recent and powerful result of this relationship is a series of posters that drive home the impact of domestic violence on women and their employers while promoting domestic violence awareness and prevention. Letting victims know that they are not alone and that there are resources to help them stop the violence and stay safe are the powerful messages the posters convey. More than 1,800 posters have already been hung in offices, retail locations, manufacturing facilities, and other workplaces around the country.

Recently, the awareness posters found unexpected but welcome homes when several high schools learned of the campaign. For example, high schools in Tampa hope the posters will help raise awareness in teens, a group where forty percent of teenage girls aged 14 to 17 report knowing someone their age that has been hit or beaten by a boyfriend, according to the FVPF.

The poster campaign is part of the Corporate Citizenship Initiative (CCI) on Domestic Violence, a first-of-its-kind project that brings together leadership teams linking business, government, labor leaders, victim advocates and state domestic violence coalitions. The CCI's goal is to develop workplace-based programs to stop domestic violence.

Verizon Wireless first began its involvement with domestic violence awareness back in 1995 when one of its predecessor companies, Bell Atlantic Mobile, announced its formal commitment to the issue. Its campaign focuses on the use of wireless technologies and financial resources to provide essential communications tools to victims in emergency situations.

Employers and high schools interested in obtaining posters may visit the Family Violence Prevention Fund's Web site at www.fvpf.org. Additional information on local domestic violence programs is available from the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-799-SAFE. Images of the posters can be downloaded from below:

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About Verizon Wireless
Verizon Wireless is the largest wireless communications provider in the U.S. with more than 25 million wireless voice and data customers and nearly 4 million paging customers. The new coast-to-coast wireless provider was formed by the combination of the U.S. wireless businesses of Bell Atlantic Corp. and GTE Corp --now Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) -- and Vodafone Plc (LSE:VOD; NYSE:VOD). The new company includes the assets of Bell Atlantic Mobile, AirTouch Cellular, GTE Wireless, PrimeCo Personal Communications and AirTouch Paging. The new company has a footprint covering nearly 90 percent of the U.S. population, 49 of the top 50 and 96 of the top 100 U.S. markets. Verizon Wireless, headquartered in New York City and Bedminster, NJ, is 30,000 employees strong. Reporters and editors can find more information about the company in its Media Center on the Web at: http://www.verizonwireless.com/mediacenter.

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