FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Verizon Awards Grant to Focus America for Diversity Mentoring Program

August 21 2003-CONVENT STATION, NJ: Focus America, a NJ Non-Profit Corporation, announced that Verizon has awarded them a grant to cover the cost of the diversity and mentor program they are establishing in Morristown, NJ for young Hispanic girls.

The program is the brainchild of several Focus America volunteers who are currently juniors and seniors in local colleges. The students want to provide an outlet for young Hispanic girls to meet, talk about the challenges of adapting to American culture while living in a household that still embraces the culture of their parents.

"It's a challenge for these girls to balance these very different cultures," says Shelly Zimmerman, president and founder of Focus America. "They want to assimilate to American culture, to be American without losing the heritage of their parents. It's not an easy shift, especially when most of them come from very low-income...or even no-income...families."

The free program is slated to start this fall in Morristown during one afternoon each week. The program will be held at the Community Soup Kitchen at the Church of the Redeemer on South Street.

About Focus America

Founded in October 2002, Focus America selected Pembroke as their flagship project, adopting the community after reading about their plight in The New York Times. The first project was collecting and shipping 50 uniforms to Pembroke, an extremely poverty-stricken community in Kankakee County, Illinois, in order to help students return to the classroom after a uniform dress code was implemented. Volunteers also collected and distributed food, coats, hats, and Christmas presents during the 2002-2003 winter.

Focus America provides community support through the talents, skills, and dedication of an extensive network of volunteers, mostly college students from Northern New Jersey as well as a few out-of-state universities. The volunteers focus on addressing basic needs (shelter, food, and clothing) then introducing mentor programs to help improve the self-esteem of the hardest hit members of these communities: the children. Their ultimate goal is to eliminate poverty in these communities while developing the business skills of the volunteers who create, implement, and manage the projects.

For more information, contact Shelly Zimmerman at szimmerman@focusamerica.org or visit their website at http://www.focusamerica.org.

CONTACT: Shelly Zimmerman, President and Founder
PO Box 267
Convent Station, NJ 07961
862-812-0648 (cell) or 973-993-8639 (home)
szimmerman@focusamerica.org