This is a repost of the information shared on High Impact Mom’s November Community Impact Page.

**Although last month, October, was Domestic Abuse Awareness Month, I still felt called to post and share with you what Verizon is doing locally to have an impact on their community and for the battle against domestic abuse. If you know a company that is doing big/good things for their community drop me an email and let me know! Note: the below information was sent to me in a press release from a PR contact that works with Verizon in Louisville.**

Verizon Wireless HopeLine^® program

Domestic violence survivors and their children in Lexington will benefit from a $7,000 donation made by Verizon Wireless to Chrysalis House, Kentucky’s oldest and largest, licensed substance-abuse treatment program for women and their children.  The grant will aid survivors of domestic violence who also struggle with substance-abuse, a common problem for women who have dealt with abusive relationships.

The grant will help fund medical and psychiatric care, dental and health exams, educational materials and wellness supplies, including everything from personal hygiene items to laundry detergent, for women who are survivors of domestic violence and are also recovering from alcohol or other drug abuse.

Chrysalis House is a comprehensive, long-term program that has grown over the past 30 years from a six-bed halfway house to a holistic agency providing a continuum of services in multiple Lexington locations. The nonprofit agency serves more than 200 low-income women and their children annually—many of whom have suffered from domestic violence—

and has more than doubled the national average rate of success for substance abuse recovery.

“Due to Verizon’s generosity, Chrysalis House is now able to provide high quality substance-abuse treatment and domestic violence counseling services to the women and children we serve,” said Mary Allison Belshoff, Assistant Director of Chrysalis House. “Chrysalis House assists more than 200 women and their families recovering from abuse and drug and alcohol addiction each year. Words cannot express our appreciation.”

This is the second consecutive year that Chrysalis House received a grant from Verizon Wireless. Last year, the nonprofit organization was awarded $7,000 for similar purposes.

This year’s gift was made possible by the Verizon Wireless HopeLine^® program, which converts no-longer-used wireless phones into support for survivors of domestic violence.

Since HopeLine’s national phone recycling and re-use program was launched in 2001, Verizon Wireless has collected more than 7 million phones, distributed more than 90,000 phones with the equivalent of more than 300 million minutes of free wireless service to be used by domestic violence survivors, and awarded more than $7.9 million in cash grants to domestic violence agencies and organizations throughout the country.

In Kentucky last year, Verizon Wireless and the Verizon Foundation donated more than $18,500 in cash grants as well as phones and airtimes to local domestic violence agencies and shelters.

HopeLine wireless phone donations are accepted at all Verizon Wireless Communications Stores across the nation, including the locations at 1895 Vendor Way, 2901 Richmond Road and 3695 Nicholasville Road in Lexington. Verizon Wireless encourages everyone who plans to give a phone to HopeLine to make sure service on that device has been discontinued and to erase any personal data on the phone. Phones given to the HopeLine program are refurbished and resold for reuse or disposed of in an environmentally sound manner.

“Chrysalis House serves as a critical lifeline for hundreds of area women who, having survived domestic violence, must now begin the hard work of overcoming years of substance abuse,” said Store Manager Lesli Daughetee, who presented the donation to Belshoff during the Nicholasville Road store’s weekly meeting on Friday. “The HopeLineprogram enables consumers to donate their old phones to benefit two great causes—protecting the environment and preventing and raising awareness of domestic violence.”

For more information on the Verizon Wireless HopeLine program, visit www.verizonwireless.com/hopeline.

About Verizon Wireless in Kentucky

In Kentucky, Verizon Wireless has more than 150 employees and 120-plus locations including company-owned retail stores, indirect agents and national retailers.

About Verizon Wireless

Verizon Wireless operates the nation’s most reliable and largest wireless voice and 3G data network, serving more than 92 million customers. Headquartered in Basking Ridge, N.J., with 79,000 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.

As a mother, daughter, wife, and friend I am thoroughly grateful for donation and community outreach from Verizon.  Having known women I love become victims {and survivors} of domestic violence I have seen first hand the dramatic effects abuse can have on an individual and their family. If you, or someone you know, is a victim of domestic violence please seek help immediately. It is not your fault {or theirs}. Please call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at: 1−800−799−SAFE(7233) or TTY 1−800−787−3224 or visit http://www.thehotline.org/