For Hometown News
ST. LUCIE COUNTY -- The community is invited to participate in the second annual "Take Back the Night," an event to help raise awareness and shatter the silence for victims of sexual assault and domestic violence.
The event will be held on Dec. 7 from 7-10 p.m. at the dance studio of Tryst Downtown, 305 Orange Ave., Fort Pierce, which has donated its space.
A clearinghouse of support agencies will be on hand to answer questions and distribute literature and information on services and resources.
Local teenage girls who have been affected by sexual violence have hand-decorated T-shirts with personal expressions and artwork. The shirts will be strung on a clothesline suspended in the space as part of the Clothesline Project.
The Clothesline Project is a program started in 1990 to address the issue of violence against women by offering a vehicle for women and girls affected by violence to express their emotions by decorating a shirt. They then hang the shirt on a clothesline to be viewed by others as testimony to the problem of violence against women.
A march through downtown Fort Pierce will be followed by a candlelight vigil and speak out for victims of sexual violence to share their stories. The event is free and open to the public.
One in every three women is the victim of a sexual assault, often at the hands of someone she knows and loves. Whether it is in the form of incest, date-rape, intimate partner violence or sexual assault by a stranger, without the community's awareness, it will continue to happen.
"She might be your sister, your daughter, your niece or even you. She's a victim of a crime we don't speak about comfortably and she's probably suffering in a silence that could ruin her life," said Mindi Fetterman, the event's organizer. "It's important that victims break the silence and know that there are local resources that she or he can turn to."
You don't have to be victim of sexual violence or even know someone who has been, though chances are you do know someone who hasn't shared it yet. The event is sponsored by the Inner Truth Project.
For more information, call (561) 909-9991, or visit www.facebook.com/InnerTruthProject.