Silent Witness

We were stoked to receive the below report from LINKS one of the beneficiaries of our Stop Violence in the Home Small Grants scheme. A heartfelt congratulations to Karyl and her team on what looks like a very successful grass-roots awareness campaign!
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There was great excitement after receiving a phone call to say LINKS had been successful in The Body Shop – Stop Violence in the Home Funding Grant. Now we had the funding needed to produce the “Silent Witness” project, LINKS event for this year’s Reclaim the Night. There was a lot of planning and work to be done.

With the help of a local builder we ordered materials needed for the life size silhouettes; ply wood, posts brackets, bolts, paint etc. We then organized the hire of power tools and equipment necessary to cut out, put together and paint our thirteen silhouettes.

Senior Constable Mick Fleming, a member on the LINKS local collective was very helpful in supplying the statistics from January 1^st 2007 - October 17^th 2007. There were 13 homicides in NSW in relation to domestic and family violence.

A number of Nyngan High School students who were keen to be involved had already put together a folder full of art work and ideas they wanted to use for the “Silent Witness” project. Paint, brushes, canvases, easels, paper etc were quickly ordered.

Victim’s stories, statistics and statements in relation to domestic and family violence and some inspirational messages all had to be printed and laminated. Along with a list of support services.

Advertising had to be organized, articles for the local paper, posters to be made and flyers sent out.

All involved were running around asking our neighbors and friends for any old unwanted boots they may have lying around. We ended up with a lot of old and not so old boots. The kids had a great time painting these boots in bright colors and designs, some with ‘Give DV the boot’ and ‘DV is not 4 me’ messages painted on them.

Barnardos Reconnect youth worker Viv Cleaver, myself and students put in a huge effort over the next two weeks to get the “Silent Witness” project completed in time for Friday 26^th October Reclaim the Night.

Music playing in the background, a cake for morning tea, and a BBQ created a positive and happy environment for all participants.

Click on the below to check out more pics from the campaign:

Silent Witness

The following letter to the editor appeared in the Nyngan Observer, 11th November 2007:

Dear Editor,
Congratulations and thank you to the co-ordinators of the Reclaim the Night event held in Davidson Park Friday October 26. Karyl Skewpeck, Vivienne Cleaver, Police Representative and young people did a great presentation creating a visual message to give domestic violence the boot. The life size figures with their written stories were depressing, however the paintings with their hopeful messages gave positive thought for reflection, and the painted shoes and boots that bordered the path were wonderfully creative and colorful. It was great to see the arts in the park and to be inspired by their messages. The works created by young people were worth visiting. There are young people in our Nyngan community volunteering to make this a great place to live.

Thank you.
Betty Taylor