Contact: Nathalie Favre-Gilly
Phone: (617) 521-0127
Email: nfg@casamyrna.org

Verizon Wireless Donates $25,000 to Prevent Teen Dating Violence

Verizon Donates $25,000 to Prevent Teen Dating Violence
On Thursday, January 25, Richard B. Colón, Regional Director for External Relations at Verizon, came to Casa Myrna’s main office to present a check for $25,000 to Executive Director Georgianna Meléndez in support of S.T.A.R. (Safety, Trust and Relationships), the agency’s renowned peer-led teen dating violence prevention program. Coloón and Meléndez were joined by three of this year’s peer educators. Founded in 1995, the S.T.A.R. program recruits and trains outstanding young adolescents from Boston-area high schools to lead after-school workshops for adolescents on avoiding abusive, intimidating and violent behavior in their personal and intimate relationships. In academic year 2005/2006, over 840 middle- and high-school students attended S.T.A.R. workshops.
The grant is the first of this size to the agency from Verizon Wireless, which has for years been a friend and supporter of the agency through donations of toys collected at its annual South Station holiday toy drive.

###

Casa Myrna Vazquez is a Boston-based organization dedicated to ending domestic violence in the lives of women and children through advocacy, prevention and intervention. What began in 1977 as a single shelter accommodating eight families has grown into New England’s foremost provider of shelter and comprehensive services to abused women and their children, operating the 24/7 statewide domestic violence hotline SafeLink (877-785-2020), emergency shelters and transitional living houses. The agency ’s range of programs includes legal advocacy services, mental health counseling, children’s services, housing search assistance and advocacy, a peer-led teen dating violence prevention program and community outreach and training on the issue of domestic violence.