The Clothesline Project

The Clothesline Project is a program that addresses the issues of women who have been affected by violence. This violence includes sexual abuse, assault, rape, incest, and domestic violence. It gives women a chance to reach out to one another and express what they have gone through in an artistic moving way.  This program started in the summer of 1990 in Cape Cod, Massachusetts by a group of women who were willing to break the silence of any women who have ever been involved in any from of personal violence. 

The idea of the shirts on a clothesline came from the AIDS quilt which contains a piece of individuals who have ever suffered or died from AIDS. The clothesline idea is driven from the idea that women would primarily being hanging the laundry out on the clotheslines while conversing with their neighbors about their thoughts and feelings.  Therefore the clothesline project is supported by the idea of what females do and allows its creativity to be used as an expression of hurt. 

Rachel Carey-Harper came up with the idea of the clothesline when she was inspired by the AIDS quilt. In October of 1990 the first original Clothesline Project took place in Hyannis, Massachusetts as a part of the "Take Back the Night" march and rally. It started off small and then by the end of the day there was a line of women waiting to take their turn to create a shirt for themselves or someone else that has gone through an at of violence in their lives. From this little booth on the center green of town, the word spread about this program. Interest from the Ryka Rose Foundation and Carol Cone's advertising agency helped to take this idea and helped to make it a nationally known program.Now there is an estimated 500 projects taking place nationally and internationally. That makes for 50,000-60,000 shirts. 

The shirt are color coordinated to determine which kind of violence or sexual assault the victim had been a part of. White represents women who died because of violence, yellow or beige represents battered or assaulted women; red, pink, and orange are for survivors of rape and sexual assault; blue and green represent survivors of incest and sexual abuse; purple or lavender represents women attacked because of their sexual orientation; and black is for women attacked for political reasons. (The Clothesline Project)

Since this program is so nationally and internationally spread most of the participant stories are successful. This is an overwhelming and empowering experience that has had positive outcomes. From Massachusetts, Greenfield Community College Human Services Club sponsored the Clothesline Project for a successful outcome in April 2010. This club offers so much support for those victims and for those who are looking for extra help. Utah Valley University is also another school that had a successful outcome of displaying and participating in the Clothesline Project. This took place in April 2011 and was estimated to have a display of 700 shirts. 

In Homans, Promoting Community Change, he expresses "Many professions in health and human services voice a similar call. To provide for the welfare of both the individual and the society, social welfare institutions act to prevent social problems; treat or resolve social problems; educate ourselves, our clients, our policymakers, and our communities about rights, responsibilities, problems and possibilities; explore how to use what we have to create what we want; enhance the quality of people's lives; and enforce measures of social control to preserve social stability." (Homan, p.76). This gives a great overview of how The Clothesline Project is a form of social welfare awareness. This program enforces the knowledge and encourages the rights and responsibilities of victims and to those who can help decrease such violence. It helps to make more people aware of what is going on and that sexual abuse and violence happens more frequently than most expect it. 

Homan, M. (2011). Promoting Community Change; Making It Happen In The Real World.          Brooks/Cole, Cengage Learning. 

Blog Post 1_Introduction

My name is Missy Lanctot and I am 23 years old. I am a 5th year senior here at BSU. I am from Woonsocket, Rhode Island which is a small over populated, diverse city that has impacted who I am today. I currently live here in Bridgewater, MA. I transferred to BSU from CCRI and became part of the Social Work program here.

I decided to be a social work major because I enjoy working with people and helping to make a change or an impact in peoples lives.  I also couldn't fully decided what I wanted to do completely with my future and decided that social work can point me in many different directions and allow me to experience many diverse careers. I want to eventually work with children, possibly in Behavior Analysis and felt that social work would be a good backbone and starting point.

What interests me about social work practice with communities and organizations is that it gives me the opportunity to affect more people at a time rather than just one.  I think it will be good practice to learn how to make a bigger impact for further change rather than just immediate change that could potentially not be as affective.  Being able to work with a larger scale of people will help me learn how to effect an organization and utilize its resources to my advantage. This semester I hope to learn what the best way to work as part of an organization is. I've never really given thought to working with communities and organizations as part of what I will be doing, therefore I think that what I will learn this semester will become useful for me as I search for jobs.  I am hoping that I can fully understand the material that I am learning and can apply it to my practice in the social work field rather than just discussing it in class and then leaving that information in the classroom. I think what makes a really great class is the integration of students and the professor. When the professor knows how to teach the material so that we can apply it and understand it rather than just stating the information to use is very helpful. Encouraging us to do well and not setting us up for failure is more reassuring for a course. As a professor I find it more helpful when they are understanding of the fact that we are here to learn and may not know all of the correct answers. The involvement of the students together and integration of class time is also a great way to utilize the time spend in class. I enjoy doing group discussions and class activities rather than constant lecture.

As I said before I currently live in Bridgewater and am from Rhode Island. Although the drive is only between 45 minutes to an hour it does make it difficult for me to drive home to visit with my family or friends due to my hectic schedule. With my work schedule and my school work I find it hard to take time off and be able to spend time at home. My family is very important to me which is why I try my best to make it home as much as possible. Not only does my immediate family live in R.I but I also have family in Maine and Florida. Therefore if there is one magical power that I could have it would be transportation. This could allow me to transport myself to visit anyone or anywhere I wanted within seconds. This would be awesome to have because I could visit Florida for a day and be back before dinner time. I wouldn't have the stress of driving (which I hate) for long periods of time. This would also be a plus to have to be able to visit exotic places around the world that I would love to visit.

Whenever I am asked about what something interesting about myself is there is one thing that immediately comes to mind and I am very open to share. I have twin or webbed toes on each foot. I was born with them and never got them surgically separated because it is really not an issue because they are my second two toes on each foot. Whenever I share this I get the same reactions, "Do you swim fast? Does it hurt? Have you ever tried to cut them?" I just laugh about it.
I love big families probably because I am part of a huge family. I am the youngest of 3 in my immediate family but I do have 45 first cousins on one side of my family. My dad is 1 of 13 brothers and sisters which makes my family so big and I love it.
I am the maid of honor for my sisters wedding this June. This is a big thing for my family because she is the first of me and my siblings, so I am extremely excited.
And then finally, I am addicted to chap-stick. This may sound silly, but it is a real thing. I have been addicted to chap-stick for about  10 years now. It started when I was in seventh grade. I constantly have chap-stick with me. If I don't have pockets, I stick it in my pants waist on my hip.  I have recently been trying to fix this addiction by using as least amounts as possible. So far it is going good, but I really hope that I can fix it fully.

For fun I really like to spend time with my family and my friends. I value my time spent with them a lot so I always find time to do so. When I'm with them I enjoy taking day trips or just relaxing and having fun. I love to watch movies, once or 100 times. I use to do gymnastics, cheerleading, and fieldhockey but because I don't have much time to commit to it I enjoy going to the gym as much as I can. I am also going to try to start leisurely reading.

If there was one major social problem that I could solve it would have to be the struggle for acceptance of same sex marriage, and all that falls under it, in all states. Although many more states are accepting same sex marriage now compared to before I think that it should be accepted everywhere in the U.S.

I am one of the most indecisive people, so when I think about what my dream job would be I never really have a concrete answer to give. I have always said and have always felt that I just want to be a house mom and raise my kids when I get older. But lets me realistic, that is dreaming a little big and a bit unrealistic. (unless I find a millionaire to marry). Therefore something that I would love to do as my career it would be to work with kids in some way or another. Working with kids and having the patience to do so isn't for everyone. I think I am very good with kids and have the patience to do so, therefore would love to work with kids.