The clothesline project brings awareness to assault victims

A group in Michigan have joined the national effort to educate people about the extent of violence and the impact that it has on women. Their message is, "No means no."

The Clothesline project began in 1990 with a group of women called the Cape Cod Women's Agenda. Their desire was to make the public aware of what the extent, prevalence and impact of violence against women is. They hung a clothesline across the village green in Hyannis, Massachusetts with 31 T-shirts that had been designed by survivors of assault, rape and incest. As women viewed the shirts others came forward and created their own shirts and the line just kept growing. Their are now over 300 local Clothesline Projects nationally and internationally and an estimate of 35,000 shirts. The Livingston Area Council Against Spouse Abuse, in Michigan, has joined the national effort. They want to encourage those who are survivors of sexual assault and their supporters to share their experiences by writing a statement against rape and violence and dropping the shirt off at the council. This month is Sexual Assault Awareness and Child Abuse Prevention. Their will be many of the shirts on display in the libraries in Livingston County. Some of the messages on the shirts are written to their attackers. Candy Jones-Guerin, marketing and community relations director for the council said,

"It's a way sexual assault survivors can speak out and have their voices heard. "Sometimes people knock on our door and ask to do a shirt for the collection. Sometimes they are students at high school. It can be anybody who wants to speak out."

According to freep.com Jones-Guerin said they have more than 300 shirts in their collection now from when they started several years ago. Jones-Guerin also said

"I think the biggest part is to give a survivor a voice.

"By giving them an opportunity to express what they want, it's giving them their voice back. It's important for a survivor to know someone is listening to them. It gives them their power back after it was taken away from them."

Last year the council gave counseling services to 161 men, women, boys and girls. In the group were 31 children ages 5 to 12. They offer a 24-hour crisis line, workshops plus help the police and other agencies that investigate sexual assault cases. According to this site,

The shirts are color coded to show the form of abuse and whether the victim survived the abuse they experienced.

White represents women who died because of violence;

Yellow or beige represents battered or assaulted women;

Red, pink, and orange are for survivors of rape and sexual assault;

Blue and green t-shirts represent survivors of incest and sexual abuse;

Purple or lavender represents women attacked because of their sexual orientation;

Black is for women attacked for political reasons.