Community Voice Mail Receives $2.5 Million Award to Help Homeless and Phoneless across the Nation; Community Voice Mail Receives Largest Grant in Its History.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 8, 2003

Announcing the largest grant received in its 10 year history, the Community Voice Mail National Office in Seattle, WA, will be granted $2.5 million over 5 years by the Cisco Systems Foundation. The National Office is the hub for "Community Voice Mail" ("CVM") sites nationwide -- providing free, personalized 24-hour voice mail access to those without a telephone. Studies show that, despite the high tech revolution, nearly 5 million households in the U.S. are still without telephone service, while thousands more struggle to pay bills and find affordable housing in a weak economy.

Moving From Crisis to Self-Sufficiency

Peter Tavernise, Executive Director of the Cisco Systems Foundation, notes, "Our focus is to utilize technology in a meaningful way to help people move from crisis to self-sufficiency. Community Voice Mail provides individuals in crisis with a consistent telephone number which is crucial to ending the cycle of poverty & homelessness. CVM's mission directly aligns with ours, helping to build strong and productive communities."

"With the power of the Cisco Systems Foundation grant, we will utilize new technology to cut costs, ease administrative burdens, and increase efficiency across our 37 sites nationwide," said Jennifer Brandon, Executive Director of Community Voice Mail. "By adopting Cisco's Unity(TM) product as our new VOIP ("Voice Over Internet Protocol") voice mail delivery system, our users will eventually be able to check messages via email and the telephone -- in more than 20 languages. We will be able to expand to new communities faster and less expensively; we estimate serving 65,000 people annually by the end of 2007."

Community Voice Mail: Free and Easy To Use

Community Voice Mail enrollment is free, and takes less than 3 minutes to set up. Each client receives his or her own voice mailbox, and activates it by recording a personalized greeting in their own voice. A Community Voice Mail ("CVM") number looks like any other local telephone number and therefore does not signal the client's status as a homeless or phoneless person.

Results

Community Voice Mail helps people avoid long-term unemployment and homelessness, to escape domestic violence, and to become more productive and self-sufficient. Nationwide statistics show that in 2002, 50% of CVM users looking for jobs found jobs, and 65% of CVM homeless users found housing -- impressive when considering the current national unemployment rate of 6.1%, with 1.9 million people in the U.S. unemployed for 27 weeks or longer.

For more information, visit our website at www.cvm.org, or telephone the Community Voice Mail National Office at 206-441-7872.

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