Safety Alert:If you are in danger, please use a safer computer, or call 911, your local hotline, the Idaho Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-669-3176, or the U.S. National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE(7233). There is always a computer trail, but you can leave this site quickly if you click ESCAPE on the navigation bar or press CTRL W on your keyboard.

Text Size: A A A

ICASDV RESOURCES :: DVAM

Domestic Violence Awareness Month History

Domestic Violence Awareness Month (DVAM) evolved from the "Day of Unity" in October 1981 conceived by the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence. The intent was to connect advocates across the nation who were working to end violence against women and their children. The Day of Unity soon became an entire week devoted to a range of activities conducted at the local, state, and national levels.

The activities conducted were as varied and diverse as the program sponsors but had common themes: mourning those who have died because of domestic violence, celebrating those who have survived, and connecting those who work to end violence.

In October 1987, the first Domestic Violence Awareness Month was observed. That same year marks the initiation of the first national domestic violence toll-free hotline. In 1989 the U.S. Congress passed Public Law 101-112 designating October of that year as National Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Such legislation has passed every year since with NCADV providing key leadership in this effort. Each year, the Day of Unity is celebrated the first Monday of Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

Purple Ribbon

Over the years, a number of sources have been credited with originating the use of purple ribbon as a unifying symbol of courage, survival, honor and dedication to ending domestic violence.

Although the exact history of the purple ribbon 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 battered women's programs use the purple ribbon to raise awareness about the crime of domestic violence in their communities.

Purple ribbons are...

made into pins and passed out at local events
embroidered on t-shirts, hats and bags
tied to the antennae of police cars
hung on doors
wrapped around trees
and draped over fences at murder scenes

In addition to the demonstration of support for victims and advocates, the display of purple ribbons throughout a community conveys a powerful message that there's no place for domestic violence in the homes, neighborhoods, workplaces or schools of its citizens.

Clothesline Project

The Clothesline Project is a visual display that bears witness to the violence against women and children. The Clothesline Project comprises T-shirts designed by survivors of abuse and those who have lost loved ones to it. 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 of about the crimes of violence against women and children.

What the Shirts Represent

Shirts that hang on The Clothesline represent a wide spectrum of abuse. Although each shirt is unique, a common color coding is generally used to represent the different dimensions of violence against women and children:

WHITE for women and children who have died as a result of domestic violence
YELLOW or BEIGE for women and children who have been battered or assaulted
RED, PINK or ORANGE for women and children who have been raped or sexually assaulted
BLUE or GREEN for women and children survivors of incest
PURPLE or LAVENDER for women and children attacked because of their sexual orientation/identification.

The History of the Project

The Clothesline Project originated with 31 shirts in Hyannis, MA, in 1990 through the Cape Cod Women's Agenda. A small group of women - many of whom had experienced violence in their own lives - designed the visual monument to help transform staggering statistics about violence against women and children into a powerful educational and healing tool.

They decided to use a clothesline after discussing how many women in close-knit neighborhoods have traditionally exchanged information over backyard fences while hanging laundry out to dry.

The Clothesline Project breaks the silence about violence against women and children by giving a voice to survivors and victims. Since 1990, hundreds of Clothesline Projects have emerged nationwide and abroad, resulting in tens of thousands of shirt designs.

Courtesy of: www.dvam.vawnet.org

Silent Witness How the Initiative Began

In 1990, an ad hoc group of women artists and writers, upset about 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 felt an urgency to do something that would speak out against the escalating domestic violence in their state, something that would commemorate the lives of the 26 women whose lives had been lost in 1990 as a result of domestic violence. After much brainstorming, 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--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. The organizers called the figures the Silent Witnesses.

The Debut

On February 18, 1991, more than 500 women met at a church across the street from the Minnesota State Capitol with the newly-constructed Witnesses lined up at the front of the sanctuary. The women formed a silent procession escorting the figures single file across the street, up the steps, and into the State Capitol Rotunda for public statements and a press conference. The sheer volume of space the figures occupied spoke of their power... and the loss. The Silent Witness Exhibit was officially launched.

The National Initiative

Inspired by the impact of the Exhibit on many lives, a few of the project supporters, Janet Hagberg and Jane Zeller, determined, in mid-1994, to set a larger goal, namely the formation of a national initiative dedicated to the elimination of domestic murder using the five part process model, starting with the creation of Silent Witnesses Exhibits in all 50 states. Within one year, as of September 1995, a total of 800 Silent Witnesses had been created representing women who were killed as a result of domestic violence in seventeen states. By February of 1996 twenty-four states were involved. As of March of 1997 forty-six states had joined the initiative.

The Goal

The goal of the Silent Witness National Initiative became 0 by 2010, zero domestic murders by the year 2010. The hope was born; the healing was already beginning to happen at the moment. Now all the states are involved as well as twenty other countries, successful domestic violence reduction projects have been discovered, the march and conference successfully accomplished. The original twenty-seven women (witnesses) whose murders started the whole initiative have prevailed. Their stories have been heard across the country and they are calling for the healing to continue until there are no more domestic murders and no more domestic violence.

Courtesy of: www.silentwitness.net