A healthy future.

Happy Friday! On today’s Up To Speed Live, host Diana Alvear recapped the big news stories from earlier in the week and shared the following new updates:

Supporting inclusive tech and P33

On Wednesday, Nia Mathis and Steven Shaw from our State and Local Government Affairs team were guest speakers at a virtual event to discuss the challenges facing Black and Latinx tech founders in Chicago. It’s a cause that’s personal for Penny Pritzker, the former United States Secretary of Commerce, who co-founded P33, a nonprofit focused on enhancing Chicago’s status as an inclusive global tech leader.

“Nationally, on average, 2.4% of venture funding goes to Black and Latinx founders,” said Penny. “In Chicago, despite being one of the most racially distributed cities in the country, only 1.9% of local venture funding goes to Black and Latinx founders. Addressing this staggering gap in resources is not simply an issue of fairness and opportunity. It represents a critical imperative for innovation and business growth.”

P33 hosted Wednesday’s event and recently partnered with Verizon and local incubator 1871 to launch TechRise, a startup accelerator for early-stage Black and Latinx tech entrepreneurs.

“We can do difficult things if we come together in a cross-sectional, cross-industry, cross-functional way, and we do it with intentionality, and that's what TechRise is about,” said Steven Shaw. “Once we do that, not only will our founders and our businesses rise, our communities will rise; our society will rise.”

TechRise is one of many Citizen Verizon responsible business initiatives dedicated to moving the world forward through economic, environmental and social advancement.

Recognition from Fast Company

Verizon has been named to Fast Company’s prestigious annual list of the World’s Most Innovative Companies for 2021, ranking No. 6 in Corporate Social Responsibility for our efforts to help close the digital divide with Verizon Innovative Learning.

Best Place to Work for LGBTQ Equality

Another honor that came our way this week: The Human Rights Campaign has recognized a record-breaking 767 businesses for meeting all of their criteria to earn the 100% CEI rating. Verizon is proud to once again earn the title of “Best Place to Work for LGBTQ Equality,” along with fellow top-rated employers, for taking the steps needed to provide a workplace of equity and inclusion.

Hoy Health savings

This week, we announced a great new partnership with Hoy Health to make it easier and more affordable for our customers to get access to the care they need, even if they don’t have insurance.

Here’s how the partnership works:

• It’s available to all postpaid wireless customers
• You get access to discounted, virtual medical consultations on phone or video chat
• Consultations are only $49, a 35% savings with your exclusive Verizon discount
• You get 1 month of prescription medication included, if it’s prescribed during your virtual consultation
• You get to choose to do your visit in Spanish or English

You also get these benefits:

• 80% off certain medications through the Hoy Health free mobile app
• Discounted management kits for chronic conditions
• An additional 10% discount on select medications for your family in the U.S. and even select countries in Latin America.

All this and no insurance necessary.

To get started, just go to www.verizon.com/hoyhealth or check out this video.

Hope for the future

So here’s something fun: Many of us are feeling hopeful about what’s to come and we wondered, what do our kids think? What’s their hope for the future? So why not ask your kids? Record their answers and send them to good@verizon.com. We’ll be putting their beautiful faces and answers on the show a little later this month

VA Service Recognition

As you know, we like to end our Friday shows on a high note and this definitely fits the bill. Last year, we equipped the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Hospital in Palo Alto, CA, with 5G Ultra Wideband to help doctors train and prepare for surgery. With 5G and a cool application from Medivis, a company that worked in our 5G Lab in New York, doctors see a three-dimensional image superimposed upon a patient, so they can see into that patient before operating and have electronic health record data displayed on a headset at the same time.

As a result of this work, John Macias, who is a part of our Global Network and Technology Group based out of San Francisco, and the Technology Product and Development team just received the VA Service Coin, a gesture of gratitude from the Department of Veterans Affairs. Great job to John and this amazing team!

If you have any questions, email them to live@verizon.com.

Click here for a transcript of the webcast.

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