Steward and Associates is celebrating its 26th season of the Steward and Associates Speaker Series and opened with guest speaker Rose Stuckey-Kirk.
Steward and Associates is a community based organization that brings nationally-known personalities, such as singer Harry Bellafonte; the late journalist, Ed Bradley; Susan Taylor, former editor and chief of Essence Magazine; actress Diahann Carroll; Harvard professor, Cornell West and others to Indianapolis in attempts to engage the community, particularly focusing on issues affecting Indianapolis residents.
“We are excited about having Rose Kirk here in Indianapolis to help us kick off the 2011-2012 season. When we ran across Rose’s name and the works that she’s done with the Verizon Foundation, we said we had to have her come and dialogue with this community,” said Matthew Steward, president of Steward and Associates.
Rose Stuckey Kirk is the president of the Verizon Foundation, the non-profit philanthropic arm of Verizon headquartered in New Jersey that does national and international philanthropy on behalf of Verizon. It focuses on two major causes: domestic violence prevention and technology in education.
“When people flee a domestic violence situation, if they take anything with them, they usually take a cell phone. We realized that our phone is a lifeline,” said Kirk.
About 10 years ago, Verizon instituted a cellular phone plan where customers could upgrade their cell phones every two years. They realized there was an abundance of used phones and decided to create a program called HopeLine where Verizon would refurbish the phones, sell them back to customers and use 100 percent of the proceeds to organizations that focus on domestic violence prevention. The public can also donate their old cell phones to this program at any time regardless of their cell phone provider.
Verizon also donates pre-paid cell phones to domestic abuse organizations.
“When you’re trying to rebuild your life, we give you a phone that you can use so that people can connect with you, you can talk to your employer or find a job and your family knows you are safe,” said Kirk.
In addition to providing cell phones to victims, the foundation is working on engaging men and teens in the fight against domestic violence and telling the story of a Verizon employee who was murdered due to domestic abuse. “Telling Amy’s Story” is a documentary that has been featured on public broadcasting stations around the nation.
This year Verizon has given over $300,000 in grants to Indiana organizations that deal with domestic violence prevention.
The Verizon Foundation is willing to tackle difficult topics such as domestic violence but is also passionate about educating today’s youth on what they do best – technology.
They created Thinkfinity, a free website (thinkfinity.org) providing K-12 content including lesson plans, videos and interactive tools developed by leading educational partners.
Thinkfinity is used in five schools across the nation and its primary goal is to tackle specific issues in those schools.
For example, the Verizon Foundation brought Thinkfinity to K-3 students in a Los Angeles school to help kids learn how to read in a more innovative way. They are also working with a school on the East Coast helping students increase their science, technology and math education.
“We’ve identified at each of the schools what their core need is and the role that our Thinkfinity platform and devices have on impacting and changing learning,” said Kirk.
One of the foundation’s schools is St. Phillips Academy, a private K-8 Episcopal based school that uses the Thinkfinity model for each grade level. The foundation even equipped the school with a technology integrator who fuses technology and teaches the Thinkfinity curriculum.
Verizon realizes the impact their devices have on today’s youth and not only do they promote human interaction and collaboration but also encourage parents to set boundaries and standards regarding technology.
Having Kirk visit Indianapolis to share with the community all of the initiatives that the Verizon Foundation is doing in the community is only the tip of the iceberg for Steward and Associates.
Steward said that this season’s speaker series is slightly different than in the past. This season, he and his team plan to aggressively reach out to the media, particularly Black media, to inform the public about the speakers.
They are also conducting a lecture and workshop with the speaker and students from local schools. As a former journalist, Kirk visited Ben Davis High School and was able to engage one on one with students in the school’s journalism program.
Furthermore, in addition to the more in depth lecture for the public, speakers who have books will continue book signings after the lecture. Steward is also asking speakers to attend a reception in order to engage more closely with guests.
The next speaker for Steward and Associates Speaker Series is prostitute turned attorney, Cupcake Brown on Nov. 3.
For more information, visit www.stewardspeakers.com, www.verizonwireless.com or www.foundation.verizon.com.
