On October 26th, 2024, the Peer Success Team @ Aliceville, organized a ‘Domestic Violence’ event at the Recreation area. In the Outside yard, we had a Yoga/Meditation area, an Art area for the ‘Clothesline project’ and inside in the Gym, we had 6 workshops being held simultaneously, each hosting 25 participants in 15 minute sessions. Every 15 minutes, there was a rotation, so participants could switch to another workshop or go outside for a Yoga/Meditation session or create art. As always, we had to be super creative, because we do not have access to real T-shirts. The initial plan was to have T-shirts cut out of cardboard, but there was no access to tools to cut approx. 200 T-shirts. What did we do? We drew a T-shirt on paper and had it copied. Presto magic, we had the basis for our Clothesline project!
Again, where there is a will, there is a way.
The workshop themes were: Boundaries, Laws of Boundaries, Building Blocks, Abusive relationships, Self Esteem.
Celeste Blair did the opening speech after which Warden Broton addressed all present with a very heartwarming speech, that touched all our hearts.
The number of females that have withstood Domestic Violence is overwhelming, we carry these visible and invisible scars with us, but we do not allow them to define us.
The outcome was beyond expectation, we had more than 150 participants to this event.
All the painted T-shirts were attached on a makeshift clothesline, under the roof of the Rec area and will be on display for a few days. With every breeze, the T-shirts moved gently along, each of them symbolizing the resilience of us females, who stood up against domestic violence and chose to close that chapter of abuse for good.
A special thanks to Celeste Blair, Sherida Nabi, Maureen Robbins, Annabel Valenzuela, Virginia Zepoda, Lauren Besta, Brooke Beckley, Jessica Anzaldo and many, many more.
Sherida Nabi
