A rainbow of painted T-shirts can be found from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Greene Street Monday, as the Clothesline Project goes on display as part of National Sexual Assault Awareness Month, organized by Sexual Assault and Violence Intervention & Prevention (SAVIP).
The theme for this year's Sexual Assault Awareness Month is "It's time to act. Safer Campuses. Brighter Futures. Prevent Sexual Violence," according to the USC Student Health Services website.
With two domestic murder-suicides in the last year, including the murder-suicide in Copper Beech last November involving USC student Diamoney Greene,shooting and the on-campus shooting of Professor Raja Fayad by his ex-wife, SAVIP has emphasized prevention, which the Clothesline Project visually represents.
Founded in 1990, the Clothesline Project was chosen by SAVIP not only to show support for survivors, but also to “emphasize the importance of consent, acknowledge accountable bystanders and raise awareness for sexual assault and violence."
Kristin Tanner, an intern with the SAVIP office and graduate student in the Masters of Social Worksaid she felt optimistic that the Clothesline Projectwill help make raising awareness more fun and help get the word out in a more creative fashion.
Each shirt's color represents a different type of violence: pink (sexual assault), yellow (relationship violence), blue (childhood abuse), white (remembrance of those lost to sexual assault and violence), purple (hate crime), red (male survivors of sexual assault and violence).
SAVIP's ultimate goal is not to just be educating people about sexual assault and violence, but also to discuss the issues in relatable contexts that they hope will leave a longer lasting impression, while trying to keep the setting relatively lighthearted and fun, like through painting shirts.
For more information regarding the Clothesline Project or SAVIP, contact Holly Lovern at hlovern@mailbox.sc.edu, or stop by the SAVIP office.