Bay Area Domestic Violence Organizations Receive $65,000 In HopeLine Grants From Verizon Wireless In California

WALNUT CREEK, CA — San Francisco Bay Area woman and men affected by domestic violence will benefit from Verizon Wireless’ support for organizations that focus on domestic violence prevention and awareness. In honor of Domestic Violence Awareness Month, 13 local non-profit organizations will be awarded cash grants worth a total of $65,000 from the company’s HopeLine® phone recycling program: Asian Americans for Community Involvement (AACI), Asian Women’s Shelter, Bay Area Legal Aid, Berkeley Food & Housing Project, Edgewood Center for Children and Families, Korean Community Center of the East Bay, MAITRI, Next Door Solutions to Domestic Violence, Shalom Bayit, STAND! Against Domestic Violence, St. Vincent De Paul Society in San Francisco, Vietnamese American Community Center of the East Bay, and YWCA of Sonoma County.

The 13 recipient agencies will use the HopeLine funding to support new and existing domestic violence prevention and support programs such as an emergency shelter, youth peer counseling, transitional housing and in-language staffing support at multi-cultural facilities.

“We are so grateful for Verizon support,” said Naomi Tucker, executive director of Shalom Bayit, a domestic violence program serving the Jewish community in the San Francisco Bay Area. “Verizon’s HopeLine grants in the past helped us publish Love Shouldn’t Hurt, the first peer-led dating violence prevention education curriculum in the country that targets the Jewish community. Since 2002 over 5,500 Bay Area Jewish teens have participated in our healthy relationships workshops. Now, this generous grant from Verizon Wireless will expand Love Shouldn’t Hurt to reach teachers and parents – who can have a profound influence in mentoring teens to make healthy relationship choices.”

The grants are part of the HopeLine from Verizon program, which puts wireless services and equipment to work to assist victims of domestic violence. Verizon Wireless collects no-longer-used wireless phones, batteries and accessories in any condition from any wireless service provider. Through HopeLine, phones are then refurbished or recycled in an environmentally sound way. Refurbished phones, each complete with 3,000 minutes of wireless service, are provided to local domestic violence organizations, and local government and law enforcement agencies, for use with their domestic violence clients.

“Verizon Wireless has a longstanding commitment to helping domestic violence agencies throughout the Bay Area,” said Kevin Zavaglia, region president for Verizon Wireless. “Anyone can donate used cell phones and accessories to HopeLine. A simple donation can make a lasting impact on the lives of domestic violence survivors right here in the San Francisco Bay Area.”

Since HopeLine was launched in 2001, Verizon Wireless has:

• Collected more than 7 million phones.
• Awarded more than $7.9 million in cash grants to domestic violence agencies and organizations throughout the country.
• Distributed more than 90,000 phones with more than 300 million minutes of free wireless service to be used by victims of domestic violence.
• Properly disposed of nearly 1.6 million no-longer-used wireless phones in an environmentally sound way.
• Kept more than 200 tons of electronic waste and batteries out of landfills.

HopeLine wireless phone donations are accepted at all Verizon Wireless Communications Stores across the nation. Verizon Wireless encourages everyone who plans to give a phone to HopeLine to make sure service on that device has been discontinued and to erase any personal data. Phones given to the HopeLine program are refurbished and resold for reuse, or disposed of in an environmentally sound manner.

For more information on the HopeLine from Verizon program, visit www.verizonwireless.com/hopeline.  

About Verizon Wireless
Verizon Wireless operates the nation’s most reliable and largest wireless voice and 3G data network, serving more than 92 million customers. Headquartered in Basking Ridge, N.J., with 79,000 employees nationwide, Verizon Wireless is a joint venture of Verizon Communications (NYSE, NASDAQ: VZ) and Vodafone (LSE, NASDAQ: VOD). For more information, visit www.verizonwireless.com. To preview and request broadcast-quality video footage and high-resolution stills of Verizon Wireless operations, log on to the Verizon Wireless Multimedia Library at www.verizonwireless.com/multimedia.

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