Events & Awareness Months
MARCH
Women's History Month
APRIL
Sexual Assault Awareness Month
Women & Girls' Wellness Month
- Information about Women's History Walk
MAY
Teen Pregnancy Prevention Awareness Month
OCTOBER
Breast Cancer Awareness Month
Domestic Violence Awareness Month
DECEMBER
Clothesline Project
Every year the Alexandria Office on Women exhibits The Clothesline Project in the community during Sexual Assault Awareness Month (April) and Domestic Violence Awareness Month (October). The vividly decorated t-shirts are strung on a clothesline to bear witness to violence against women and their strength to survive! There is also an on-line clothesline featuring t-shirts that survivors wanted to share on the internet. Click here (link) to view the on-line display.
The Clothesline Project began in 1990 when members of the Cape Cod Women's Agenda hung a clothesline across the village green in Hyannis, Massachusetts with 31 shirts decorated by survivors of assault, rape and incest. Women viewing the clothesline came forward to create shirts of their own and the line kept growing. Since the first display, The Clothesline Project has grown through cooperation with schools, universities, State Houses, shopping malls, churches, and women's events. An estimated 35,000-50,000 shirts have been made.
"Doing the laundry has always been considered women's work and in the days of close-knit neighborhoods, women often exchanged information over backyard fences while hanging their clothes out to dry," said Carol A. Chichetto of East Dennis, MA, quoted from www.now.org, the NOW organization website. "The concept is simple. Let each woman tell her own story in her own unique way and hang it out for all to see. It was and is a way of airing society's dirty laundry."
Creating opportunities for people to learn and speak openly about sexual and domestic violence is a main goal of the Office on Women. Twice yearly, the SARA Program and Domestic Violence Program host t-shirt making nights where survivors and their friends and family are invited to create a t-shirt that represents their experience.
Call Geneva Fuentes at 703.838.4911 if you are interested in making a t-shirt and participating in this awareness event. The Clothesline Project was on display October 15-23, 2009, in the Vola Lawson Lobby at City Hall, 301 King Street. Watch this space for the next display date and more information, which will be posted during late summer, 2010.
Click here to view the online clothesline display
Children's Holiday Party
Every year the Alexandria Office on Women organizes a Holiday Party for children and mothers who have been recently served by our Domestic Violence Program. At the party, the families can reunite with past shelter friends and staff, eat, and take pictures with Santa Claus, among other events. Each mother and child also receives a bag of gifts to wrap and place under their own tree on Christmas Day. Over one hundred families look forward to this exciting event annually, and our community's generosity is what makes it such a success.
This year's Children's Holiday Party will be held on Wednesday, December 16, 2009. If you would like to participate in the party this year, we have a gift suggestion list for ideas. If you wish to donate children's toys or other gifts, please provide newly purchased, unwrapped items. We will provide each mother with wrapping paper to personalize each child's gift.
We are also requesting gift certificates to local stores in denominations of $25.00. This way, each woman will have the opportunity to purchase something special for herself or her children.
We are accepting donations now at the Office on Women, located at 421 King Street, Suite 400, Alexandria. The office is open from 8 am until 5 pm, Monday through Friday, except on holidays. We are also available to pick up your donations if you are unable to bring them to our office. The deadline for delivery or pick-up of unwrapped gift donations is Friday, December 11, 2009.
If you need help deciding what to purchase, or if you have any other questions about donating for this event, please call Shannon or Stephanie at 703-838-4911. We would be happy to assist you in any way we can. Thank you so very much for helping to make this a great day for the children and families we serve.
Twelfth Annual Women's Holiday Art Show
Take a break from crowded malls and retail stores and join creative women artists on Sunday, December 6, from 1 to 4:30 pm at the Charles Houston Recreation Center for a relaxing afternoon of art, fun, women, and wine. Find just the right gifts for everyone on your list -- and something wonderful for yourself. Over 30 exhibitors will display pottery, handmade clothing, scarves, purses, jewelry, crafts, and much, much more! Complimentary refreshments will be served, and raffle drawings will be held throughout the event. Fifteen percent of the proceeds will be donated by the Friends of the Commission for Women to support programs of the Office on Women.
For more information, please contact Lisa Baker at 703.746.5030 or via email at lisa.baker@alexandriava.gov.
Bathroom Poster Distribution
The Alexandria Domestic Violence Program needs volunteers ages 18 & up to help distribute educational and public awareness materials. Volunteers are given a list of locations in the City of Alexandria and you can go at your own pace. Please call Jen Clayton at 703-838-4911 or email at jen.clayton@alexandriava.gov
Health Cares About Domestic Violence DayThe Alexandria Office on Women Domestic Violence Program and Inova Alexandria Hospital commemorate Domestic Violence Awareness Month at the 7th Annual "Health Cares About Domestic Violence Day" on October 15th, 2009, from 11 am until 2 pm. Hospital personnel and visitors learn what they can do to detect domestic violence and how to respond and assist victims.
Salute to Women Awards
Each year, the Alexandria Commission for Women recognizes the community’s most outstanding women who go above and beyond to improve the lives of women and the larger Alexandria community. Nine women were honored at the 2009 Salute to Women Awards Banquet, which took place on March 30 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel.
Categories of awards include:
The Marguerite Payez Leadership Award - This award is a lifetime achievement award named in honor of a woman who has been one of Alexandria’s prominent community leaders. The award will be given to a woman who, through volunteer work, has exhibited leadership qualities and has trained other women to assume leadership roles in the community ~ nominee for this award must be a resident of Alexandria.
Women's Health and Safety Advocate Award - This award recognizes a woman who has made a significant contribution to the well-being of women by advocating for, teaching about or providing for women's health and safety in Alexandria. This award may be for work in such areas as breast cancer education, HIV/AIDS awareness, domestic violence or sexual assault.
Youth Community Services Award - This award recognizes an adult woman who has tapped the leadership capacities of young people in our city and/or a young woman whose service activities provide a model for other young people of the community. Note: in any given year, two awards may be made, one to an adult and one to a young woman.
Leadership in Business and Career Development Award – This award recognizes either a woman business owner or a woman who has excelled in her field – and who has contributed her time and talent by providing career education and training opportunities for women and girls in the City of Alexandria. This award may also be given to a woman who, through her business or career, has made significant contributions in areas that directly impact the lives of women in Alexandria.
The Marian Van Landingham Legislation and Public Policy Award - This award recognizes a woman who has made a significant contribution to the status of women through advocating for issues of importance to women. This award may be for work in such areas as developing improvements in services offered by government or advocating for educational issues.
Making a Difference Award - This award honors a woman who serves as a change agent in her community or as a role model for other women. This award may be for work in such areas as helping women understand how they may effectively organize to create positive change in their own lives and in their communities. This woman may be someone who works alone or as a member of a team or organization to better the Alexandria community.
The Vola Lawson Award - This award recognizes a City employee who, like the person this award is named to honor, has advanced, improved or otherwise contributed to the status of women in the City of Alexandria during the course of the job. This award may also be given to individuals who have left City employment for as long as two years after resignation or retirement.
Rising Star Award - This award recognizes an Alexandria woman with less than a total of five years of volunteer service in Alexandria who has made significant contributions to the well-being of the women in the Alexandria community, particularly through community service or other volunteer projects.
Individual banquet tickets may be purchased through the City’s eChecks system starting at the end of February, or by downloading the invitation and reservation card (also available on this site at the end of February each year) and delivering it with payment to the Office on Women, located at 421 King Street, Suite 400. You may contact the Office on Women for further information at 703.746.5030. Proceeds from the event support the Sexual Assault Response and Awareness (SARA) Program and other programs at the Office on Women. Click here to view past award winners.
Silent Witness Project & Candlelight Vigil
"Witnesses are red because it is the color of our life's blood, the one way in which we are all united...no matter our race, creed, or culture. The shields are placed over the heart-our life's rhythm."
- South Dakota Coalition Against Domestic Violence
The Silent Witness Project is a nation-wide initiative that began in Minnesota in 1990. The project was launched by a group of Minnesota women who felt an urgency to do something about the escalating domestic violence in their state. Twenty-six life-size red silhouettes were created, each bearing the name of a woman whose life was brutally cut short due to the violence in her life.
Since the project began in 1990, Silent Witness exhibits have been springing up across the United States. By 1997, forty-six states had joined with Minnesota in creating these silhouettes. In 2002, the Commonwealth of Virginia joined the silent witness project.
Alexandria has silhouettes of our own victims who died due to domestic violence. Family, friends, and community members will honor these lives by displaying these silhouettes at various locations throughout October. The silhouettes memorialize Alexandrians who died at the hands of domestic violence, since 1990. They will also represent the thousands of city residents who are still being hurt by those they love, and are still in danger.
On Thursday, October 8, 2009, at 7 pm in Market Square, in front of City Hall at 301 King Street, the Domestic Violence Program held our Silent Witness Candlelight Vigil, an annual event during which we remember and honor all those who have died, or are still suffering, due to acts of domestic violence. Click here for more information regarding the Silent Witness National Initiative
Grocery Story Donation Day
The Alexandria Domestic Violence Program solicits volunteers ages 18 & up to help with our "Grocery Store Donation Day" every year during September . Morning and/or afternoon shifts are available. The grocery stores are located in the City of Alexandria. Grocery store volunteers solicit items needed for the Domestic Violence Shelter which houses women and children fleeing from abusive homes. For more information or to sign up for next year's Volunteer Day, please call Jen Clayton at 703.838.4911 or email at jen.clayton@alexandriava.gov.
Search
City of Alexandria, VA
GMail
Yahoo! Mail
AOL Mail
Hotmail
My Email
Facebook
Twitter