Avon Chairman and CEO Andrea Jung and Avon partner, actress Zoe Saldana, awarded a $60,000 Avon Foundation for Women grant to Chicago-based Family Rescue, Inc. to support its services for domestic violence victims and their families in the Chicago area. The grant was awarded during the Avon ‘Believe World Tour,’ an event to commemorate the company’s 125th anniversary. The event in Chicago is the seventh stop of the 16-city Believe World Tour and the final stop in the United States.

The grant is part of the $2 million Avon Global Believe Fund, which makes ending violence against women a key element of the Believe World Tour to honor the company’s heritage and belief in its mission to empower women.

Throughout 2011, approximately 125,000 Avon Representatives will participate in the Avon Believe World Tour as it visits Atlanta, Dallas, Los Angeles, London, Istanbul, New York, Mexico City, Warsaw, Moscow, Sao Paulo, Buenos Aires, Manila, Shanghai, New Delhi and Johannesburg. In addition to Zoe Saldana, special guests who have joined Avon at past stops of the Tour include Reese Witherspoon, Fergie, Patrick Dempsey, Yasmin Le Bon and Suze Orman. This new grant brings the total Avon Foundation grants awarded to Family Rescue, Inc. to more than $100,000.

The Avon Global Believe Fund is a pioneering effort to support women’s domestic violence shelters and agencies in 16 cities around the world and to draw attention to the alarming lack of adequate services for women and children who are victims of domestic violence. To identify the best victim services providers to receive Avon Believe Fund grants around the world, the Avon Foundation for Women is partnering with the National Network to End Domestic Violence (NNEDV) to expand and improve the network of shelters that provide life-saving services for victims of domestic violence and their families.

The Avon Foundation for Women’s Speak Out Against Domestic Violence program supports domestic violence awareness, education and prevention programs, as well as direct services for victims and their families. Through the end of 2010 in the United States, the Avon Foundation has donated more than $23 million to programs aimed at reducing domestic violence. One of the Avon Foundation’s signature domestic violence programs, Walk the Course Against Domestic Violence, will hold its first event in Illinois on September 13, 2011, at the Cog Hill Golf & Country Club in Lemont, IL, during the PGA TOUR’s BMW Championship. One hundred percent of proceeds raised at Walk the Course-Chicagoland will benefit five domestic violence agencies in Illinois.