Local Domestic Violence Awareness Organization Receives Grant To Fund Emergency Assistance

ST. LOUIS, MO — As part of the company’s national HopeLine program, Verizon Wireless announced today that it has donated $3,000 to Safe Connections as part of the nonprofit organization’s mission to reduce the impact and incidence of relationship violence and sexual assault.

“We are pleased to support the work of Safe Connections,” said Brendan Fallis, president – Kansas/Missouri region, Verizon Wireless. “Their efforts to end domestic violence in St. Louis have made a tremendous difference in the lives of families dealing with domestic abuse and have raised community awareness of the need for prevention and intervention programs. The additional programs they’ll be able to conduct with this grant will amplify their voice and raise even more awareness in the community.”

Located in St. Louis, Mo., Safe Connections works to end relationship violence and sexual assault and their long-term effects. Nearly 15,000 women, teens and men are helped each year through a combination of prevention education services, crisis intervention services including a 24-hour Crisis Helpline, and individual and group counseling and support services. All of Safe Connections’ services are offered completely free of charge.

HopeLine from Verizon puts the nation’s most reliable wireless network to work in the community by turning no-longer-used wireless phones into support for victims and survivors of domestic violence. Proceeds from the HopeLine program are used to provide wireless phones and airtime to victims of domestic violence and cash grants to local shelters and non-profit organizations that focus on domestic violence prevention. Since the launch of the HopeLine phone recycling program in 2001, this initiative has collected more than 7 million phones, given out more than $7.9 million in cash grants and distributed more than 90,000 phones with more than 300 million minutes of free wireless service.

For more information about HopeLine from Verizon visit www.verizonwireless.com/hopeline. If you or someone you know is a domestic violence victim call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 to talk to a counselor. All calls to the National Domestic Violence Hotline are confidential.

About Safe Connections
Founded in 1976, the mission of Safe Connections is to reduce the impact and incidence of relationship violence and sexual assault through education, crisis intervention, counseling and support services. Safe Connections reaches nearly 15,000 people each year through the combination of violence prevention education services for students in middle school through college, crisis intervention services providing resources and support to survivors and those concerned about them, and individual counseling and support services to women and teen survivors of relationship violence and sexual assault. Safe Connections provides all services to clients free of charge and with no time limit, and their Crisis Helpline can be reached 24 hours a day at 314-531-2003.

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About Verizon Wireless
Verizon Wireless operates the nation’s largest 4G LTE network and largest, most reliable 3G network. The company serves 93.0 million retail customers, including 88.0 million retail postpaid customers.  Headquartered in Basking Ridge, N.J., with 80,000 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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