Company Donates Wireless Phones & Service to Barrier Free Living and Sanctuary for Families

ORANGEBURG, N.Y., July 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Continuing its commitment to domestic violence prevention and awareness, Verizon Wireless recently donated wireless phones with prepaid service to Sanctuary for Families and Barrier Free Living, serving families in need throughout New York City's five boroughs.

The donations were made possible through the company's HopeLine(R) phone recycling program, which collects old, no-longer-used cell phones at Verizon Wireless Communications Stores throughout metro New York and New Jersey. The phones are refurbished, recycled or sold and the proceeds are donated to domestic violence advocacy groups in the form of cash grants and prepaid wireless phones for survivors. Phones that cannot be refurbished are disposed of in an environmentally-sound manner.

New York State's largest non-profit organization, Sanctuary for Families, which received 35 wireless phones with prepaid service, is dedicated exclusively to serving domestic violence victims and their children since 1984. Each year it helps thousands of New Yorkers build safe lives through a range of high quality services including educational, legal and economic empowerment and children's programs.

Barrier Free Living, one of the first programs in the country to provide shelter, counseling, advocacy and skills building for people with disabilities who also are domestic violence survivors, received 10 wireless phones with prepaid service. Research shows that 85 percent of people with disabilities are abused at some time in their lives and women with disabilities stay in abusive relationships significantly longer than women without disabilities. Barrier Free Living's non-residential domestic violence program offers a broad range of services including counseling, occupational therapy and advocacy within the legal, medical, financial, law enforcement and child welfare systems. It also operates Freedom House, an emergency shelter for survivors of domestic violence with disabilities or survivors who have children with disabilities.

"The HopeLine recycling program provides a quick and easy way for each of us to make a difference in the lives of women and children scarred by domestic violence," said Pat Devlin, president of Verizon Wireless' New York Metro Region. "Something as simple as a wireless phone can help enable and empower these women to take positive steps to transform their lives."

Verizon Wireless was the first wireless carrier in the nation to collect and recycle old cell phones and has done so since January 1999, first in New York and then across the U.S. Nationally, the HopeLine program has collected nearly 5.6 million wireless phones, and given more than $6.3 million in cash grants and nearly 80,000 phones with nearly 230 million minutes of airtime to domestic violence prevention organizations. In Metro New York and New Jersey, Verizon Wireless has donated more than $1 million in products, services, and cash grants since 2001.

HopeLine wireless phone donations also are accepted at all Verizon Wireless Communications Stores in New York City and across the nation. For store locations and additional information, visit www.verizonwireless.com/hopeline.

About Verizon Wireless

Verizon Wireless operates the nation's most reliable and largest wireless voice and data network, serving more than 86.6 million customers. Headquartered in Basking Ridge, N.J., with more than 86,000 employees nationwide, Verizon Wireless is a joint venture of Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ) and Vodafone (NYSE and LSE: 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.

SOURCE Verizon Wireless

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RELATED LINKS
http://www.verizonwireless.com
http://www.verizonwireless.com/hopeline