Angie Linsenman, WRCNM Transitional Supportive Housing Coordinator, sets up a Clothesline Project display with Petoskey Public Library’s Facility Manager, Neil Ahrens.

The Clothesline Project (CLP) is a worldwide program started in Massachusetts in 1990 to address the issue of violence against women. It is a way for women affected by violence to express their emotions by decorating a shirt. The shirts are hung on a clothesline to be viewed by others as testimony to the problem of violence against women. The Women’s Resource Center of Northern Michigan (WRCNM) has created a Clothesline Project with shirts designed by local survivors.

Why have a Clothesline Project?

• It serves as an educational tool for those who view it.
• It becomes a healing tool for anyone who makes a shirt – by hanging the shirt on the line, survivors, friends and family can literally turn their back on some of the pain of their experience and walk away.
• It allows those suffering in silence to know they are not alone.
• It honors survivors of sexual assault and domestic abuse, as well as those who lost their lives to this type of violence.
• Any woman who has experienced such violence, at any time in her life, is encouraged to come forward and design a shirt. Victim’s families and friends are also invited to participate.

The very process of designing a shirt gives each woman a new voice with which to expose an often horrific and unspeakable experience that has dramatically altered the course of her life. Participating in this project provides a powerful step towards helping a survivor break through the shroud of silence that has surrounded her experience.

During National Domestic Violence Awareness Month, the Women’s Resource Center of Northern Michigan (WRCNM) will display shirts designed by women and children who are survivors of domestic abuse and sexual assault at several area libraries: Charlevoix Public, Cheboygan Public, Harbor Springs, Mancelona Township, Otsego and Petoskey District. Bay Winds Federal Credit Union branch offices will also display WRCNM Clothesline Project t-shirts October 17-25, and collect non-perishable items for the Safe Home.

For more information about this project, contact the Women’s Resource Center of Northern Michigan at (231) 347-0067.