More than 850 multicolored t-shirts fluttered outside the Laguna College of Art and Design last Thursday, one of several campuses across the county that gave an airing to the Clothesline Project this year.
Each color denotes a different crime, red for rape, blue for child abuse, yellow for domestic violence. And each shirt is embellished by a victim of violence, giving voice to that individual’s story, says Renggin Hedayat, of Costa Mesa, who is promoting the Clothesline Project.
The clothesline serves as a visual testament to the courage and survival of victims who have sought help from the nonprofit Community Service Programs, which provides services and assistance to sexual assault victims, said Dawn Foor, who supervises CSP’s sexual assault victim services, which aids 1,600 to 1,800 rape victims annually.
The decision to make a shirt, the act of designing and creating it, and contributing it to the project is itself empowering, Foor says. It allows victims to break the silence and speak out against violence, she said.
CSP representatives were on campus to describe their services, which include a 24-hour response line, one-on-one peer counseling, support groups and campus education programs.
The Clothesline Project in Orange County began in 2001 with just eight t-shirts and now in its 14th year gives a voice to hundreds of women and men affected by violence and sexual assault, as well as child sexual abuse, sexual harassment, human trafficking, domestic violence, and homicide, the statement says.
