Berks Women in Crisis - Public Awareness
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Alex the PeaceWorks Puppet helps PeaceWorks educators when talking to students from preschool through 7th grade about good and bad touches.

This picture is one display from the Empty Place at the Table event. This event is in memory for all victims that have been murdered through domestic violence. Allissa Jacques was a passenger in the car when her mother's friend's ex-boyfriend rammed the car onto the path of an oncoming train. All four in the car were killed. Allissa was only two.

The Clothesline Project is a display of t-shirts made by victims of domestic or sexual violence. The t-shirts depict the pain and anger caused by domestic and sexual violence.

This is an example of a t-shirt made by a victim of domestic or sexual violence. It was part of the Clothesline project (see above). It reads: Break Your Silence-No Lies-My high school band director raped me when I was 16...when I was 17...when I was 18...19...20. I told when I was 21...first my therapist, then my mother, then my brother, THEN his wife. I found out she had been abused by her father. She left Bob & took their kids. He never told me he was sorry.

This is another Clothesline Project t-shirt. It was made by a victim and reads: KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF OF ME!

This is another display from the event An Empty Place at the Table. Leidy Bonanno was a well-loved nurse at Reading Hospital. At age 24 she was fatally strangled by her 28-year old ex-boyfriend. He used a telephone cord. The ex-boyfriend was sentenced to life in prison. This empty place will not be forgotten.

Silent Witnesses

The Silent Witness Project is a visual monument to Berks County individuals who were murdered due to domestic violence.

The display consists of life-sized red silhouettes of women, children and men. Each figure wears a shield on his or her chest that describes each victim’s life and untimely death. Berks Women in Crisis created this exhibit in 2002, following an epidemic of domestic violence deaths that took the lives of 16 Berks Countians. Each year, as the death toll rises, new figures are dedicated as part of the display. As some are retired each year, their shields are placed on a board so their lives and stories of their deaths are never forgotten.

To read the stories of Berks County victims since 1999, click here.

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