Empowering the Survivor’s Voice: Writing as a Means of Healing

Date: TBA 2016

During 2016, Dora McQuaid will host a workshop in State College, PA, where Penn State University is located, to afford survivors of sexual violence the opportunity to gather as a group for a weeklong intensive writing workshop.

Through the Council for Hope and Healing and Happy Valley Cares, Dora will be working with Penn State University student leaders to offer this program.

The workshop has been designed to:

1. As a group, write a poem about the experience of survivorship and healing that will be incorporated into the blue ribbon woven through Dora McQuaid’s hair and arms in her image in Michael Pilato’s Heister Street Inspiration Mural;

2. As a group, share experiences and resources of healing, empowerment and community regarding personal history of victimization and survivorship;

3. Address current community-wide need for greater awareness, education, prevention, management and outreach services and support for victims of sexual violence;

4. Provide counseling services via local non-profits to participants of the workshop on an as-needed basis;

5. Provide participants with tools for ongoing healing that will support them after the workshop commences;

6. Create a community-wide event for the unveiling and group delivery of the final poem developed through the weeklong workshop itself as a means of raising awareness, strengthening community response and celebrating survivorship, healing and empowerment.

The group poem will be added to the blue ribbon on Dora McQuaid’s image on the Inspiration Mural.

Please check back for the workshop dates, which will be posted as soon as we have them determined.

For more information, see:

The Council for Hope and Healing
Happy Valley Cares