Verizon Wireless Awards Nearly $40,000 In Hopeline^SM Grants To Bay Area Domestic Violence Prevention Programs

WALNUT CREEK, CA — Verizon Wireless announced today the names of domestic violence prevention agencies in the San Francisco Bay Area that have been selected as 2002 HopeLineSM grant recipients. Verizon Wireless' HopeLine program incorporates grants and phone recycling to benefit victims of domestic violence. Totaling nearly $40,000, the HopeLine grants have been awarded to the following non-profit domestic violence advocacy organizations:

• Asian Women's Shelter - 'Children's Program' - counseling and activities for children of battered women seeking help (more than 50% of AWS residents are children); $10,000
• Community Violence Solutions - 'Prevention Services' - education for middle school students to prevent sexual violence (50% of CVS crisis cases are children); $10,000
• Community Works - 'WomanAlive' - services for women incarcerated in the San Francisco County jail system who are also victims of domestic violence; $7,069
• La Casa de Las Madres - 'Emergency Shelter and Counseling' - emergency services for battered women and their children; $5,000
• The Riley Center - 'Housing Program' - emergency shelter, transitional housing, and counseling services for battered women and their children; $7,000

"Domestic violence is an epidemic. It can impact our neighbors, friends and co-workers," said Tony Simpson, Verizon Wireless' Northern California Regional President. "Verizon Wireless remains committed to assisting victims of domestic violence and to help prevent future assaults."

Since HopeLine was launched nationally in 2001, Verizon Wireless has awarded more than $275,000 to non-profit domestic violence shelters and programs throughout California and more than $600,00 to such organizations in the western United States. Through HopeLine, the company has also donated more than 1,100 wireless phones with airtime throughout the western states to social services and law enforcement agencies to assist victims of domestic violence. Nationally, Verizon Wireless has donated more than 4,000 such phones through HopeLine.

The HopeLine program, exclusive to the company, directly benefits victims of domestic violence by collecting previously owned wireless handsets and refurbishes, recycles and/or sells them. Verizon Wireless then donates all the proceeds to non-profit domestic violence advocacy organizations and/or purchases cellular phones for victims. Verizon Wireless has a longstanding partnership with the Family Violence Prevention Fund (FVPF) and provides thousands of dollars in support of the non-profit's National Workplace Resource Center on Domestic Violence. With the FVPF, Verizon Wireless is a founding participant in the Corporate Citizenship Initiative (CCI), a first-of-its-kind national project that develops workplace-based programs to stop domestic violence.

EDITOR'S NOTE: To inquire about the availability of interviews with a victim who has used a donated phone, or a representative from an organization receiving a Verizon Wireless grant, please call Ken Muché at (949) 286-8193.

About Domestic Violence

• About 1.5 million women and 834,000 men are physically assaulted by an intimate partner each year in the United States (Department of Justice)
• In 1997, more than 3,195,000 children were reported as victims of child abuse (National Committee to Prevent Child Abuse)
• More than 175,000 workdays are lost each year in America because of domestic violence (Society for Human Resource Management)
• More than 551,000 elderly persons were abused or neglected in 1996. Two thirds of the known perpetrators were spouses or their own children (National Center on Elder Abuse)

About Verizon Wireless

Verizon Wireless is the nation's leading provider of wireless communications. The company has the largest nationwide wireless voice and data network and 30 million customers. Headquartered in Bedminster, NJ, Verizon Wireless is a joint venture of Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) and Vodafone (NYSE and LSE: VOD). Find more information on the Web at http://www.verizonwireless.com.

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