MCC PARTICIPATING IN STATEWIDE USED PHONE DRIVE TO SUPPORT NEW WORKSAFE DOMESTIC VIOLENCE EDUCATION PROGRAM

Madisonville Community College will be participating in a statewide campaign to help victims of domestic violence. The Kentucky Commission on Women (KCW) Statewide HopeLine Drive will officially launch on October 1 during a news conference at 12 noon ET in the Capitol Rotunda with Governor Steve Beshear, KCW Chair Madeline Abramson, KCW Executive Director Eleanor Jordan, Lauren Love Wright of Verizon Wireless, and Pat Byron, mother of domestic violence victim Mary Byron. Homicide is the second leading cause of death for women on the job, according to national statistics, but the Kentucky Commission on Women, Gov. Beshear, Verizon Wireless and state government agencies are working to change those numbers in Kentucky.

During the KCW Statewide HopeLine Drive, collection boxes will be placed across Kentucky to gather no-longer-used wireless devices and accessories - in any condition from any provider. The devices will be turned into a grant for the WorkSafe Program, a collaborative project between KCW, Kentucky State Police and the Mary Byron Project to create safer workplaces, both for employees who are living in abusive situations and for their coworkers. The goal of the KCW Statewide HopeLine Drive is to collect 3,500 devices, each one representing an adult or child who spent at least one night at a domestic violence shelter in Kentucky in fiscal year 2013.

Locally, HopeLine from Verizon collection boxes will be available in all MCC s North Campus buildings, the Hatley Building on MCC s Health Sciences Campus, and in MCC s Muhlenberg Campus in Central City. Collection boxes will be available through October (Domestic Violence Awareness Month).

For additional information, contact Sarah Oglesby, MCC Professor of English and member of the Kentucky Commission on Women, at 270.824.8625.