BellSouth in Your Community:

As a corporation and as a family of more than 6,000 employees in North Carolina, BellSouth cares about the vitality of its communities. We care because it's the right thing to do and because the vigor of our business is directly related to the quality of life and opportunity wherever we operate. That's why we've made community mindedness one of our corporation's five guiding values. Our sense of commitment has deep roots in the 100-year heritage of the Bell System from which BellSouth sprang. We have continued to cultivate that spirit of service as we've grown in North Carolina by focusing on programs to improve education and create jobs through economic development. This commitment is also evident in our significant contributions to education, health and human services programs, the arts and cultural activities throughout North Carolina.

Education

The BellSouth Corporation has targeted education as its top community service priority. Better schools are critical to our country's long-term health. And, the quality of education will also determine the quality of BellSouth's future workforce and the ability of customers to make full use of our advanced information technologies. Some BellSouth North Carolina education initiatives include the following:

BellSouth Foundation

The BellSouth Foundation was created in 1986 to improve the quality of education throughout the Southeast in K-12 and higher education. The Foundation has awarded $2.5 million in grants to educational institutions and organizations in North Carolina.

Tutoring and Mentoring Programs

BellSouth employees are active participants in such local programs as Communities in Schools and others that involve adults in the lives of children. The company also contributes to tech prep, school-to-work and job-ready educational programs.

NetDay

BellSouth North Carolina is a major contributor to the nationwide NetDay effort to wire schools for access to the Internet. The company's NetDay effort in North Carolina is valued at more than $4 million.

North Carolina Business Committee for Education (NCBCE)

NCBCE boasts of more than 100 companies involved in the creation of results-oriented, self-sustaining, state and local initiatives to help prepare North Carolina students for the future. Current NCBCE initiatives include: educational policy and legislative agenda input; advocacy of higher graduation standards; the Total Quality in Education research project; work force preparedness and family/parent involvement.

Corporate and Matching Gifts

Through BellSouth's matching gifts programs, for every dollar an employee donates to an institution of higher education, the company donates two dollars. BellSouth employees have donated an additional $102,000 to educational institutions and initiatives, including 61 higher learning institutions; area Communities in Schools programs; the Foundation of the Carolinas College Incentive Fund; and others.

BellSouth Pioneers

BellSouth's 10,000 North Carolina Pioneer volunteers bring enormous amounts of enthusiasm, know-how, and people-power to community undertakings of every size and type. Last year alone, they logged more than 300,000 hours of community service in North Carolina. They contribute to BellSouth's community activities strongly focused on education. Some Pioneer projects include:

• Junior Achievement
• Habitat for Humanity
• North Carolina Zoo

Health and Human Services

BellSouth is involved in a variety of health and human services organizations and initiatives, including:

• United Way
• Consumer Affairs Council
• YMCA/YWCA
• Closed Captioning for Persons with Hearing Disabilities
• Senior Net
• Walk-a-thons