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Sojourner House receives donation
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Sojourner House Domestic Violence Shelter, Burdman Group and Verizon Wireless officials show the $5,000 check presented to Sojourner House on Tuesday by Verizon Wireless. From left are Constance Collins, Sojourner case manager; Joseph Caruso, Burdman Group executive director; John O’Donnell, Verizon financial specialist; LeeAnn Davidson, Verizon employee wellness manager; Eileen Larson, Sojourner judicial advocate; Aubrey Walker, Sojourner House manager; Malinda Gavins, Sojourner program director, and Heather Foky, Verizon associate dire
By William K. ALCORN
YOUNGSTOWN
Verizon Wireless donated $5,000 and 700 food items to Sojourner House Domestic Violence Shelter as part of Verizon’s domestic-violence prevention program.
Sojourner officials accepted the donations Tuesday at the Burdman Group, 284 Broadway, on the city’s North Side. Sojourner House is a program of the Burdman Group.
The Burdman Group’s core areas of service are behavioral-health services, including case management and counseling and independent housing units for the mentally disabled; employment and job retention; and the Sojourner House domestic-violence shelter for women and children.
The Verizon grant, made possible by the company’s HopeLine phone-recycling program, will help support Sojourner’s mission of providing a comprehensive program of crisis intervention, education, advocacy and shelter for victims of domestic violence in Mahoning County, officials said.
The 700 nonperishable food items donated came as a result of Verizon’s nationwide Lose Weight to Stop Hunger campaign conducted in October during Domestic Violence Awareness Month.
The campaign is part of the company’s 50,000 Pound Challenge in which employees are encouraged, through healthy eating and exercise, to lose weight.
For every pound that area Verizon employees lost in October, the company donated one food item to the local domestic violence shelter of their choice, company officials said.
Since 1991, Sojourner House has provided emergency shelter 24 hours a day, seven days a week for women and children escaping from an abusive environment, Burdman officials said.