Laura’s House Launches New Website for Teens Thanks to Verizon Wireless
Posted on December 6, 2012
Unveiled during National Domestic Violence Awareness Month 2012, the new interactive site extends the Healthy Emotions and Attitudes in Relationships for Teens (H.E.A.R.T.) prevention and education program to the broader teen community
LADERA RANCH, Calif., Oct. 31, 2012 – According to a recent study, nearly 1.5 million high school students nationwide experience physical abuse from a dating partner in a single year. This month, as part of its efforts to prevent dating abuse by educating at-risk teens on healthy relationships and appropriate conflict resolution skills through its H.E.A.R.T. program, Laura’s House launched a new teen Website with funding from a Verizon Wireless HopeLine® grant.
The colorful and dynamic teen Website, which can be viewed at www.laurashouse.org/lhteen, offers a number of interactive features designed to reach today’s tech-savvy teen populations. These features include digital postcards that address dating abuse and provide tips and encouragement to teens that find themselves in an abusive relationship; online pledge cards that enable teens to take a “virtual” stand against dating abuse; a quiz feature that lets teens assess whether they are being abused by their dating partner, or if they are the abuser; music, news and current events; podcasts, and other informative resources that can help teens become educated about dating abuse.
“We are grateful to Verizon Wireless for its generous Foundation grant that made it possible for us to bring the idea of a more modern and interactive teen Website to fruition,” said Marissa Presley, Prevention and Education Specialist for Laura’s House. “Teens today spend so much of their time online, whether at the computer or on their smart phone, and we wanted to be able to offer them the information and interactive tools that they need to become better educated about dating abuse, and the behaviors and attitudes that can prevent that abuse from turning into tragedy.”
In addition to supporting the launch of the Laura’s House teen Website, funding from the 2012 Verizon Wireless HopeLine grant is also being used to fund technology upgrades, including new tablets for shelter residents, produce an educational video, and provide general support for the Laura’s House Emergency Shelter.
Since 2010, Laura’s House has actively partnered with Verizon Wireless in “ending the silence of domestic violence” within the Orange County community. Verizon Wireless’ Southern California marketing and sales operations teams regularly conduct collection drives for essentials that are given to survivors living in the Laura’s House Emergency Shelter. Laura’s House has also presented several workshops on-site at Verizon’s Southern California headquarters in Irvine, Calif. to educate employees on topics such as how to detect and intervene in situations where domestic violence is a factor.
“Verizon Wireless is proud to partner with organizations such as Laura’s House in our fight against Domestic Violence in Southern California and across the nation,” said Margi Simoni-Leibovitch, Associate Director of Marketing for the West Area of Verizon Wireless. “Our HopeLine program provides us the opportunity to provide much needed programs and services that help survivors of domestic abuse build lives that are free of violence.”
HopeLine® From Verizon
Through HopeLine, Verizon’s phone recycling program, the company collects no-longer-used wireless phones, batteries and accessories in any condition from any carrier and puts them to work in the community by turning them into support for domestic violence survivors. Phones collected through HopeLine recycling drives are either refurbished and sold or recycled, with the proceeds donated to organizations that work against domestic violence in the form of cash grants and prepaid Verizon Wireless phones for survivors.
Since the launch of HopeLine in 2001, more than $14.2 million in cash grants have been awarded to domestic violence agencies and organizations throughout the country, and nearly 123,000 phones have been distributed with more than 406 million minutes of free wireless service to be used by victims of domestic violence.
Consumers can also donate their phones at Verizon Wireless Communications Stores nationwide or by mail using the prepaid mailing label available at www.verizonwireless.com/hopelinemailinglabel.
About Laura’s House
Over the past eighteen years, Laura’s House has provided residential shelter and support services to nearly 3,500 families, and counseling, life skills education and legal assistance to over 40,000 individuals. The mission of Laura’s House is to change the social beliefs, attitudes and the behaviors that perpetuate domestic violence while creating a safe space in which to empower individuals and families affected by abuse.
About Verizon Wireless Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE, Nasdaq: VZ), headquartered in New York, is a global leader in delivering broadband and other wireless and wireline communications services to consumer, business, government and wholesale customers. Verizon Wireless operates America’s most reliable wireless network, with more than 94 million retail customers nationwide. Verizon also provides converged communications, information and entertainment services over America’s most advanced fiber-optic network, and delivers integrated business solutions to customers in more than 150 countries, including all of the Fortune 500. A Dow 30 company with $111 billion in 2011 revenues, Verizon employs a diverse workforce of more than 188,000. For more information, visit www.verizon.com.