Supporters to gather in effort to Take Back the Night

Rape Crisis Center to host event at CCSN's West Charleston campus

This clothesline doesn't hold someone's laundry. It holds power, defiance and strength.

It's part of Take Back the Night, an event which offers empowerment for survivors of sexual assault. The Rape Crisis Center of Southern Nevada has planned the event from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. on Friday at the CCSN West Charleston campus.

The intent is to raise awareness in the community about the issue of rape and sexual violence and promote a sense of freedom for survivors.

The event will include an open mic for those who have experienced sexual assault, as well as poetry readings, a survivor rally, entertainment or both adults and children and a Tunnel of Hope, a tarp tunnel starting with posters and pictures representing abuse and ending with images representing victims reclaiming their lives.

It also includes the Clothesline Project, on which men and women who have been raped hang clothes covered with bold messages. The exercise helps victims take back their sense of dignity and self-worth.

Those who have not been victims are invited to attend as well.

"Take Back the Night is a community effort that allows all community members to become involved in ending violence," said Elizabeth Tamburri, executive director of the Rape Crisis Center. "National statistics show us that the safest communities are those where community members are invested in safety and awareness."

Other statistics show one in four girls, as well as one in six boys, will be sexually assaulted before age 18.

"You have to remember, those are just the ones we learn about," said Christina Hernandez, outreach coordinator for Las Vegas. "A lot of rapes go unreported."

One of the local resource training coordinators is Janet, who asked that her last name not be used. She was a victim of date-rape at age 20.

"It was nine years before I told anyone," she said. "People who have been raped see it as their fault it happened. That's what I did. I saw it as my fault."

The crisis line gets calls from teenagers as well as adults. Most want to know where they can go for help, what steps they should take and how to get counseling. Some just need to talk about it.

Calls to the hot line that result in a hospital visit can number 60 per month or as high as 90 per month.

Hernandez said a lot of rapes include alcohol use.

"A lot of women will be under the influence of alcohol when (the rape occurs)," she said. "They'll wake up and see they are undressed or partially undressed, lying next to someone, and not sure what happened."

The prevalence of date-rape drugs, she said, also is affecting how many sexual assaults occur.

Take Back the Night first appeared in Europe in the late 1800s. It didn't reach America until 1978, when the streets of San Francisco were filled with women marching at night to protest violence against women. That march saw more than 5,000 women from 30 states participating.

Programs sprang up across the country, taking their own forms. The clothesline project first showed up on the East Coast in 1990.

Janet has attended survivor conferences in Utah and Idaho. There, she participated in the clothesline portion of the event and found it uplifting.

"It empowered me," she said. "It tells the person that did this to me that he has no power over me, no control. This is my life."

To donate materials for the Clothesline Project or Tunnel of Hope, call 385-2153, or for more information, visit www.therapecrisiscenter.org.