Just in time for Domestic Violence Awareness Month, Verizon Wireless is expanding an on-campus cell phone-recycling program that will benefit survivors of domestic violence throughout October.
The program, called U-HopeLine, is partnering with the School of Social Work to install collection bins in six new locations, said Judith Zenowich, director of development at the School of Social Work.
Through U-HopeLine, donated phones will be refurbished and given to local shelters and agencies to distribute to survivors of domestic violence, with 3,000 pre-paid minutes, which can be renewed each year, said Verizon Wireless spokesman David Samberg.
Older wireless phones are fully dismantled and recycled in an environmentally friendly way.
“The phones get used either way in a good way, towards benefiting survivors of domestic violence,” Zenowich said.
The proceeds from the recycling are used to provide cash grants to shelters and non-profits serving survivors of domestic violence in the New York metro area, Samberg said.
Samberg said recipients of the new cell phones could use them for seeking employment, legal counsel, daycare services and personal use. The phones may also allow survivors to elude abusers who may be tracking them.
“The program lets survivors use wireless technology to get their lives back in order,” Samberg said. “You need a phone number for getting a job. With their own cell phone, women in these situations do not have to give a shelter’s number when asked for contact information.”
Wireless phones, batteries, chargers and accessories in any condition can be dropped off in bins located at the Cook Campus Center, Livingston Student Center, Winants Hall on the College Avenue campus and at the Graduate School of Social Work building at 536 George Street. This is in addition to bins already installed at the Busch and Douglass Campus Centers, Zenowich said.
Permanent collection points will also be made available at Rutgers-Newark and Rutgers- Camden campus centers, making the recycling program accessible to more than 50,000 students and more than 6,000 faculty and staff members at the University, Zenowich said. Smaller cardboard U-HopeLine boxes are also set up in many administrative buildings across campus.
Verizon Wireless donates 10,000 to 15,000 pre-paid phones to domestic violence shelters and agencies each year, as well as money to local advocacy organizations, big and small, that focus on domestic violence prevention and awareness, Samberg said.
Rutgers was the first university to institute the U-HopeLine program last October, an expansion of Verizon Wireless’ national HopeLine program, Zenowich said.
School of Arts and Sciences first-year student Casey Friedman said she would donate a phone to the program.
“It’s a good cause,” she said.
In addition to collecting cell phones, HopeLine established a $100,000 endowed scholarship to graduate students seeking their Master of Social Work at the University who specialize in violence against women and children, said Rachel Schwartz, a program coordinator at the School of Social Work’s Center on Violence Against Women and Children. Scholarships of $1,500 were awarded to three students in both 2008 and 2009.
The Center on Violence Against Women and Children has also worked with student groups on used cell phone drives and hopes to do more community action projects with campus organizations this year, Schwartz said.
U-HopeLine collected 500 phones last year on the New Brunswick/Piscataway campus and hopes to increase that number with the expansion of the six additional boxes and the addition of boxes on the Newark and Camden campuses, Zenowich said.
Phones are picked up and counted from all collection points twice a month and sent to Verizon Wireless at no charge to the University, she said.
Mason Gross senior Dennis Budeshein said the program is for a good cause, but he does not have a cell phone he could donate.
“If I had it, I would. It’s just I don’t have one to give and I don’t have money to buy a new one,” he said.
HopeLine also supported direct services to victims of domestic violence at the University through a $5,000 contribution to Sexual Assault Services and Crime Victim Assistance’s general operating fund, Director Ruth Anne Koenick said.
HopeLine was created in 1999 as part of Verizon Wireless. The New Jersey branch has worked with, supported or is in contact with every domestic violence advocacy and service group in the New York metro area, Samberg said.
“We’re a cell phone company,” he said. “The thinking is to do what you know to help people, and helping domestic violence survivors has been a perfect fit for us for over 10 years.”
- Mary Diduch contributed to this article.
Hope one phone call away with Verizon, U. collaboration
Published: Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Updated: Tuesday, October 13, 2009
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