By Mary Windsor, Staff Writer

Published in print Sept.3, 2014

The Wellness Center in partnership with Alpha Chi Omega presented “The Clothesline Project” this past week.

It’s a week to shed light to those who have been affected in any way by sexual and domestic violence.  It has been occurring at UNCG for over three decades now and many universities around the nation participate in it as well.

The concept is simple enough. Allow each student to tell of his or her experience of being in or bearing witness to a sexual or domestically violent relationship by writing or drawing their stories on a t-shirt and then hanging it on a clothesline for their peers to see, read and relate to.

It is a cathartic and healing process for the creator of the shirt to share his or her experience and be able to express the unspeakable experience and pain they have endured while maintaining their anonymity.

Participating in this project allows the victim to expose a horrific secret that has altered their life in immeasurable ways. 

Breaking the silence of abuse is the first step to accepting the past and getting help for the future. It serves as a healing and coping mechanism within the individual who will, hopefully, have the ability to walk away from their experience a more confident individual.

One Wednesday, Aug. 27th, Alpha Chi Omega and The Wellness Center held an evening event called “Take Back the Night” where supports, victims, and survivors gathered together to share their stories aloud. They participated in marches and chants around campus, held a candle light vigil conducted by Denisha Ross, Dean of Students office, and brave young students gave testimonials at the end of the night.

A powerful and loud group joined together to walk around campus shouting strong messages in unison such as “Claim our bodies.

Take a stand. Take back the night!”, “We have the Power. We have the Right. This street is ours. Take back the night!” and “Stop the Violence! No more Silence!” Afterwards, all those who walked were given a candle and shared a moment of silence with the group as a whole.

During the “Speak Out” portion of the event, many young men and women stood in front of an audience and shared the experience of how they’ve been affected or know someone who has been affected by sexual assault. The air in the audience was thick with palpable emotion and shared empathy from all around as many heartfelt and heart-wrenching stories came one by one from victims.

Katie Anderson, lead coordinator of this event and member of Alpha Chi Omega, was influenced by the somber statistics she had read.

“One in four women and one in four men are affected by domestic violence and sexual assault and those people need support and help to get the word out that it happens and that it happens in your backyard and hits close to home,” said Anderson.

“Promoting domestic violence awareness by being able to ‘air out their dirty laundry’ to everyone on campus is eye-opening when you realize all shirts were created by someone that attends UNCG or in the Greensboro community. The shirts aren’t shipped here or made as fakes. They’re all real and genuine stories that affected people that are at UNCG.”

The community and Wesley-Luther Campus Ministries, who teamed up with Alpha Chi Omega and The Wellness Center for this event, donated all the shirts used.

Anderson hopes to make a lasting impact on everyone at UNCG and was inspired by her own former philanthropy Vice President and the passion for justice of the sexual assault victims.

Tools and resources are readily available for those affected by sexual and domestic violence.

The Wellness Center offers different resources like counseling, support groups and information about domestic violence, sexual assault and rape. All sessions at The Wellness Center are completely confidential.

The Sexual Violence Advocacy Program, SVCA, which is run by UNCG graduate student, is also an option for dealing with sexual assault.  If a survivor has been assaulted and needs assistance, they can get in touch with Jennifer Hamilton and explore further have their resources and further options explained to them.