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Rutgers pitches in with Verizon Wireless to help domestic violence victims
An old cell phone is not just trash.
That old phone can be turned into scholarship money. It can help fund local domestic violence programs. Most importantly, it can become a lifeline for a domestic violence victim seeking safety from abuse.
Since 1995, Verizon Wireless has collected old cell phones under its HopeLine program. Since 2008, Verizon Wireless has collected more than 5 million phones to recycle and reuse, and has provided some 80,000 phones to domestic violence victims and survivors.
This month Rutgers University became the first campus nationwide to begin collecting used cell phones for the Verizon Wireless program. Dubbed “UHopeLine,” the project will partner with Rutgers’ School of Social Work and the Center on Violence Against Women and Children, along with the university’s Sexual Assault Services and Crime Victim Assistance department.
UHopeLine was launched to coincide with the start of Domestic Violence Awareness Month. The project serves the triple purpose of raising awareness of domestic and dating violence, helping victims, and recycling old phones.
“Having the UHopeLine boxes on campus not only raises awareness for domestic violence issues, but will also give environmentally responsible students, faculty, and staff a fast and easy way to dispose of their old phones, while helping domestic violence victims at the same time,” said Judy Postmus, founder and director of the Center on Violence Against Women and Children.
The UHopeLine drop-off boxes – large black metal boxes that resemble mailboxes – were unveiled October 2 by Rutgers President Richard L. McCormick and Patrick Devlin, president of Verizon Wireless’ New York Metro Region.
The first three drop-off boxes will be located at the student centers on the College Avenue, Douglass, and Busch campuses, with others to follow at student centers on Livingston, George H. Cook, Newark, and Camden campuses, Postmus said.
“We are hoping the boxes will help raise awareness of the problem of domestic violence among our students. The problem is skyrocketing among the 16- to 24-year-old age group,” said Dean Richard Edwards of the School of Social Work.
In addition to the metal boxes, UHopeLine cardboard drop-off boxes will be distributed to various buildings on the New Brunswick, Camden, and Newark campuses for donations from faculty and staff, Postmus said.
The phones collected can be any age or condition. Phones are refurbished, sold for parts, or recycled in an environmentally sound way. The proceeds are donated to domestic violence advocacy groups in the form of cash grants and prepaid wireless phones for victims.
Rutgers’ Sexual Assault Services and Crime Victim Assistance (SAS/CVA) department will be one of the beneficiaries of the UHopeLine project, according to SAS/CVA director Ruth Anne Koenick. The department provides direct services of counseling and assistance to on-campus victims of domestic and dating violence. “We have been very busy, and any financial help that we will get from Verizon Wireless and UHopeLine will be greatly appreciated,” Koenick said.
The Center on Violence Against Women and Children has already been a recipient of the HopeLine program. This past February, the Center received a $100,000 endowment from Verizon Wireless to award three scholarships annually to Rutgers social work graduate students. The money is drawn from the HopeLine program.
The scholarships go to students enrolled in the school’s Master of Social Work program, who wish to specialize in violence against women and children. This special certification program is the first such program in the country, according to Postmus.
The three scholarship winners this year are Audrey Allred, Highland Park; Shauna Simmons, Lawrence; and Melissa Fogg, Princeton. Allred and Simmons attend the School of Social Work at the College Avenue Campus in New Brunswick; Fogg attends Rutgers-Camden. All three will receive their Master of Social Work degrees in May 2009.
Allred, who is a Rutgers graduate with a bachelor’s degree in political science and women’s and gender studies, said that as an intern at several domestic violence shelters, she has seen HopeLine’s contributions up close.
“Volunteers from HopeLine and Verizon Wireless helped paint rooms in one of the shelters where I was an intern,” Allred said. “The cell phones are just one component – HopeLine benefits the victims and survivors of domestic violence in many different ways.”