In honor of October being National Domestic Violence Awareness Month, InCourage is inviting the community to participate in The Clothesline Project.
Sara Meier, the Executive Director of Manitowoc County’s domestic violence resource center, tells Seehafer News that the project began in Massachusetts to raise awareness for those affected by domestic abuse.
“Domestic violence is a community problem. It’s not something that can just be solved by InCourage,” she explained. “It’s really important that everybody is aware of domestic violence going on in our community every day.”
The idea behind the Clothesline Project is that people hang t-shirts designed to raise awareness because that is how women used to find out that they were not alone.
“Women would be out in their long backyards, hanging their laundry out, and they would be talking over the clothesline and realize that maybe found out a neighbor was experiencing violence in her relationship,” Meier said. “That just got to be a more common thing that just more and more people acknowledged that they’re victims of domestic violence and that’s where they would talk about it.”
InCourage has supplies available for those who wish to design their own shirts, which Meier said can be a form of therapy.
“Sometimes using our creative sides can really be healing for some people,” she explained. “I think having that opportunity to not have to talk about something, but to be creative about showing people maybe what you experience or that you’re healing journey can really be healing for people.”
InCourage is hosting a t-shirt designing event on Wednesday, October 9th, from 3:00 to 7:00 p.m. at their office, located at 300 E Reed Avenue in Manitowoc.
Any questions can be directed to Valerie Oswald at InCourage by emailing valarie.oswald@InCourageWI.org.
You can learn more about the Clothesline Project by visiting TheClotheslineProject.org.
