THE CLOTHESLINE PROJECT 
The Clothesline Project started on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, in 1990 with 31 shirts designed by survivors of assault, rape and incest. Since that first display, the Project has grown to over 300 local Clothesline Projects nationally and internationally, addressing the issue of violence against women.
The Clothesline Project is a vehicle for women and children affected by violence to express their emotions visually by decorating shirts with illustrations and graphic messages. Dozens of shirts hang from a clothesline at Central Park on the morning of the Shelter’s Right Hand Annual Stepping Out Against Violence 5K Fitness Walk. The shirts are designed by women and children who have found a safe haven at the crisis shelter or who participate in the Women in Transition project, which is the walk-in program of WCCS.
The display of the shirts is an opportunity to increase awareness of the impact of violence against women, to provide a safe forum for the women to courageously break the silence of violence, and to celebrate their strength to survive. Each year the tee shirts are displayed at Shelter’s Right Hand
Stepping Out Against Domestic Violence 5K Walk benefiting the Women's and Children's Crisis Shelter.
THE SILENT WITNESS PROJECT
 In 1990, an ad hoc group of women artists and writers, upset about the growing number of women in Minnesota being murdered by their partners or acquaintances, joined together with several other women's organizations to form Arts Action Against Domestic Violence. After much brainstorming, they decided to create 26 free-standing, life-sized red wooden figures, each one bearing the name of a woman who once lived, worked, had neighbors, friends, family, children--whose life ended violently at the hands of a husband, ex-husband, partner, or acquaintance. A twenty-seventh figure was added to represent those uncounted women whose murders went unsolved or were erroneously ruled accidental. The organizers called the figures the Silent Witnesses.
In 2007, Noah Avirom, an eagle scout from Whittier, took on the creation of a Silent Witness Project for the Women's & Children's Crisis Shelter. He crafted 8 life-size red wooden figures and presented them to WCCS. Each figure is named for a local woman who was killed by her batterer.
The Silent Witnesses are on display at community events , including the Shelter’s Right Hand Stepping Out Against Domestic Violence 5k Fitness Walk. |
