The Clothesline Project Published March 12, 2015 By Senior Airman Sean D. Smith Minot Air Force Base Public Affairs MINOT AIR FORCE BASE, N.D. -- The Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention office is bringing the Clothesline Project to Minot Air Force Base. It's a program that displays T-shirts that represent individual experiences with sexual abuse and domestic violence in order to raise awareness. It's a long-running program that began in 1990, and this is its first time at Minot AFB. The shirts on display show everything from detailed narratives to elaborate artwork. Participants are encouraged to use the shirts to say whatever they want - and there are no names involved. April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month, so during March, anyone can visit the SAPR office to make a shirt. "We have all the materials here," said Reagan Gagne, Sexual Assault Response Coordinator. "If anyone has an idea of their own, they can pick up a shirt and take it home to work on it." Different shirt colors can have different meanings, such as pink and red typically representing survivors of rape and sexual assault, while green represents survivors of sexual abuse - but these are just broad guidelines. The Clothesline Project is about personal expression. The SAPR office plans to display the shirts at some of the sexual assault awareness events in April, but it won't end there. Even after sexual assault awareness month has come and gone, people will still be welcome to make shirts, which will be displayed at future events. "It's a therapeutic way to talk about or show what happened and how they feel," Gagne said. "It's safe and anonymous, and it's not like any kind of formal reporting." The T-shirts make for a colorful display that's hard to miss, and it's a uniquely personal approach to a delicate subject. The shirts give a more focused and intimate message of awareness than lectures or training. No one is mandated to look at these displays, just as no one's mandated to create them. They're just there for anyone who's interested to see. Some shirts have no words at all, only pictures; others contain entire paragraphs. "Each T-shirt is somebody's story," said Donita Theiler, sexual assault victim advocate. "These shirts can give a powerful message." Personal stories can be more effective at garnering interest than dryer approaches to training. The Clothesline Project raises awareness by stirring the imagination and lending immediacy to its subject matter topic. These aren't hypothetical scenarios; behind each shirt is a real story - and behind the story is a real person.