Wifi Revolution

Verizon (News - Alert) and Verizon Wireless are donating $300,000 over two years to launch the "Be Strong" program. Be Strong is an initiative designed to promote self-respect among teenage girls in the Los Angeles County area, as well as encourage them to develop healthy, non-violent relationships.

 

"Domestic violence is a serious and growing issue facing young people," Verizon West Region President Tim McCallion was quoted as saying in the report. "They need to learn to recognize the fundamental importance of respect for one another and respect for themselves. We are confident that the young women who participate in the Be Strong initiative will break the cycle of violence and fulfill their potential."

 

The Verizon Foundation is the philanthropic arm of Verizon Communications. Verizon Wireless has been a recognized corporate leader in the fight against domestic violence and offers grants through its HopeLine phone recycling program.

 

The Be Strong program will offer high-risk girls opportunities for education and leadership development and with a primary goal of helping participants to avoid relationship violence, which includes rape, dating violence and domestic abuse. The program also helps the participants to develop respect for their peers.

 

John Palmer, regional president of Verizon Wireless, was quoted in the report saying, "The Be Strong program will not only build resistance to relationship violence among girls just starting to date, but also help them build an online community for ongoing support. We're proud to support Peace Over Violence, its board members, leaders and tireless employees, as the agency launches a new initiative to help girls stop the cycle of violence."

 

An important phase in the program is an online community that offers girls the ability to help each other via an online forum that includes a discussion blackboard where comments and questions for other members can be posted by registered members, as well as facilitated chats with relationship violence experts, as well as celebrities like Calista Flockhart, who is the national spokesperson for Peace Over Violence, and Chris Gardner, whose rags-to-riches story had inspired the film "The Pursuit of Happyness."

 

 

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