Toolkit with Report Form - Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic ...

Section seven
Community Awareness Events -
Ideas to Help you get Started
Empty Place at the Table
Domestic violence is a deadly crime that
creates a painful void and a permanent
empty place at the table for families whose
loved ones were killed at the hands of
batterers. Following a cluster of domestic
violence murders in Lackawanna County,
PA, in 1993, the community responded
by holding a rally and march outside the
courthouse. To keep the momentum for
social change alive, rally organizers and
the Women’s Resource Center, Inc. (a
PCADV member program) worked together
to create An Empty Place at the Table. This
exhibit demonstrates the devastating result
of violence against women and children
and helps ensure that these deaths are not
forgotten.
http://www.pcadv.org/Raising-Awareness/
Empty-Place-at-the-Table.asp
The Silent Witness
National Initiative
Clothesline Project
The Clothesline Project is a visual display that
bears witness to the violence against women
and children. The Clothesline Project exhibits
T-shirts designed by survivors of abuse and
those who have lost loved ones to it. Shirt
colors represent a variety of victimizations
such as child sexual assault or domestic
violence. Survivors then decorate the T-shirt
to represent and honor their experience. The
shirts are hung on a clothesline display to:
• Honor survivors and memorialize victims
• Help with the healing process for
survivors and people who have lost a loved
one to violence
• Educate, document, and raise society’s
awareness about crimes of violence against
women and children
• Build a national network of communities
with their own Clothesline Projects
http://dvam.vawnet.org/campaigns/
clothesline.php
In 1990, a group of women artists and
writers, alarmed by 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. 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 and
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.
http://dvam.vawnet.org/campaigns/silentwitness.php
Purple Ribbon
Although the exact history of this symbol
is difficult to pinpoint, across the country
families and friends of victims have adopted
the purple ribbon to remember and honor
their loved ones who have lost their lives
at the hands of a person they once loved
and trusted. Shelters and local domestic
violence programs use the purple ribbon to
raise awareness about the crime of domestic
violence in their communities.
http://dvam.vawnet.org/campaigns/purpleribbon.php
page 54
When Crisis Strikes | Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence | 2012