The Women’s Resource Center partnered with Verizon Wireless’s HopeLine program last month to collect used cellphones as donations to help fund the center’s programs.

A large portion of the phones are given to women that were victims of domestic violence and cannot afford to buy one for themselves, while others are sold to raise funds for the group.

“Many people in the community want to help our program, but just don’t have the time or the money, but almost everyone has an old, used phone that they can donate,” Paige Miller, director of the cellphone drive for the Women’s Resource Center, said.

Any phone is accepted as a donation, even if it is not in working order, since the center is able to raise money by recycling those that are unusable.

The HopeLine has collected more than eight million phones, awarded more than $10 million in cash and grants to domestic violence agencies and distributed more than 106,000 phones with over 319 million minutes of free wireless service, while also properly disposing of 1.7 million phones in an environmentally sound way according to a HopeLine handout.

In doing so, they have kept more than 210 tons of electronic waste and batteries out of landfills.

“This program really makes it easy for a community to contribute,” Miller said. “We get overloads of cloth and other donations, but HopeLine’s cellphone donation program allows us to raise funds for all the other things these women may need.”

Even with Domestic Violence Awareness month ending, the drive goes on. HopeLine collects cell phones year round to help with many different causes, and Verizon Wireless partners with national and local organizations across the country.

Donations can be made in person, at any Verizon Wireless Communications store or by mail.