A bullet hole through the heart representing a woman’s life torn apart is just one of the many confronting images featured on t-shirts displayed at Mid Valley Shopping Centre this week.
The images expressed feelings of women and their loved ones who have fallen victim to family violence.
With the aim of exposing the effects of family violence to the broader public, Gippsland Community Legal Service teamed up with Quantum Support Services to display a clothesline of t-shirts made by participants in a program that aims to empower women and their loved ones who have experienced family violence.
The program, facilitated by Quantum, gives women who have experienced violence the necessary tools and support to realise they can remove themselves and their families from detrimental situations by teaching them their legal rights, budgeting skills and other necessities of being independent.
“A lot of it is to empower them to rebuild their social networks, to rebuild their confidence to be on their own and to rebuild their social skills that they’ve probably lost after being isolated and controlled or in an abusive relationship for years,” GCLS community development worker Sarah Smethurst said.
Coinciding with worldwide initiative, A Week Without Violence, GCLS team leader Carol Abery said the eye-catching display was a “good visual way to show the impact on women and spread awareness of violence against women”.
“Because people in abusive relationships often feel like they’re alone, or that they’re isolated and ashamed of what’s happening, (the clothesline) is a good way to show people that it’s happening to other people and that you don’t have to be alone,” Ms Smethurst said.
“One of the main ideas is that it is part of the therapeutic process, that women can express whatever they’re feeling and then put it up on the clothesline so they have a voice but then they leave it, so they can walk away from it, and it’s a part of moving on.”
In response to a community need, a family violence police unit was developed in the Latrobe Valley under the leadership of Sergeant Mark Blanchard last year.
With one in three women affected in some way by family violence, Sgt Blanchard said exposing the community to the reality of the problem was important.
“Violence affects one in three women, whether that be previously or currently so in that respect it’s a problem that extends out in the community because everyone will know somebody who is a victim of violence particularly in the home, so we would encourage people to become more aware,” he said.
