VPVA reaches out to survivors with their annual Clothesline project

“You are not alone.”

Yesterday afternoon, Violence Prevention and Victim Assistance (VPVA) displayed hand-decorated t-shirts hanging on clotheslines to raise awareness on sexual abuse. This annual event was held at Voorhees Mall allowing nearby students to read the artwork as well as create their own if they would like.

“The clothesline project is an annual program. The mission has two parts. The first part is to allow survivors and their loved ones a space to be able to express what they’re feeling about their experiences. This is a way for some people to get feelings out that they’ve never talked about before. We want to provide that space. The second part is using those shirts to create the line and raise awareness about the issue and to let students know what their resources are here on campus,” said Laura Luciano, assistant director of VPVA. “We started the line in 1997 and each year the line grows. Whatever shirts are made, we add it to the line, regardless of their message. At this point, we have about 700 shirts. Last year, we had over 70 new shirts made. We seem to be on par with that already.”

According to VPVA’s campus climate survey, 1 in 5 undergraduate women and 5 percent of men are experiencing some act of sexual violence on campus. The survey also shows that the LGBTQ community are 2-3 times more likely to experience sexual acts of violence as well. As members of VPVA welcome viewers to walk around the area and read through the shirts, Luciano wants students to know how they can get involved and support survivors.

“There are a few things that I really want people to know across the community. First, for survivors directly, I want them to know that they are not alone and help is available, that we care about them and we want them to come to us for support. The second thing I want to say to the general student body is that we really need to stop blaming survivors and we need to start believing them and their experiences. We have an issue on this campus with sexual violence, relationship abuse, stalking, just like every other community in our country, and we have the power to stop it. All of us together have the power to stop it,” said Luciano.

VPVA is located off of College Ave at 3 Bartlett Street. They are committed to helping survivors as well as educating others on the impacts of sexual violence and what they can do to help.

“There are two ways to support. The first is in your daily life. The first is to believe survivors whether it’s someone coming to you as a friend or if it’s something you heard on social media like in the news. We constantly blame survivors and we need to stop that. When we stop that, the world will be an infinitely better place. The other thing is to really be an active and positive bystander. If you see something, witness something, experience something where someone is being physically harmed in some way or there are degrading comments being made or sexist comments being made, that you are addressing that. Through bystander intervention, we will be able to stop this behavior. We want people to speak up.”

If you are a survivor or someone who would like to know more about this organization, visit their site.

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