What would you do for one week without violence?

The YWCA is asking that question this week during its annual “Week Without Violence.” The week “challenges all people to live for one week without perpetrating, participating in or allowing violence,” according to a press release.

Some of the highlights of this year’s Week Without Violence include programs on the effects of violence, a vigil of remembrance, mock tombstones, the distribution of “Random Acts of Kindness” bags and the Clothesline Project.

The Clothesline Project will take place on central campus and includes a display of shirts designed by women, friends and family who have survived violence.

The Week Without Violence kicked off Sunday evening in Bandshell Park with a candlelight vigil to remember survivors and victims of violence.

Judy Dolphin, executive director of the YWCA, said the project helps make the statistics of violence more tangible.

“I think it gives you a very direct and visible look at the sheer number of victims,” she said.

According to a press release, Pat Hipple, co-sponsor of the Clothesline Project, said the clothesline “is an important step to ending the vicious cycle of abuse. By hanging their shirts out in the open, women can leave behind some of the pain from their past and continue their healing.”

The shirts will be on display on Wednesday, and supplies will be available to people who want to write their own messages about survivors or victims of violence. Dolphin said counselors also will be in the area because of the emotional and graphic content of some of the messages.

“Violence becomes real to you in the symbols of these shirts,” Dolphin said.

The Clothesline Project originated in Davenport and will display about 200 shirts. Other co-sponsors of the event include the Margaret Sloss House Women’s Center, Assault Care Center Extending Shelter and Support (ACCESS), Panhellenic Council and the Alcohol Awareness Week Committee.

Brad Bushman, associate professor of psychology, will give a presentation on media violence and its effects on aggression as part of the week’s events. Bushman said he will discuss the short-term and long-term effects of media violence, as well as the magnitude of those effects.

He said he “want[s] people to know that these effects are not trivial.”

Bushman’s presentation will be held at noon on Thursday in the Gold Room of the Memorial Union.

Another way the YWCA is promoting its Week Without Violence is through “Random Acts of Kindness” bags, which were prepared by Ames children and will be distributed on campus throughout the week.

Dolphin said making these “bags of joy” allowed children to talk about the kind of world they wanted to live in and how they could deal with anger and violence. She said by giving the bags out randomly, the children can share their ideas with members of the Iowa State community.

Mock tombstones also will be displayed on campus this week in memory of people who were lost to violence. Dolphin said these tombstones are “another graphic way of communicating the statistics of violence in our area. People will learn, as they walk around campus, the realities of violence in our society.”

Dolphin said although anger is a natural, human response, it should not result in violence.

“It’s not a matter of not being angry, it’s a matter of how you resolve that anger,” she said. “We live in a very violent society, and it’s a heck of a way to live. There’s got to be a better way to resolve differences of opinion than hurting each other.”