Anyone driving or walking along Main Street in downtown Brownstown in late October may notice T-shirts hanging on the fence outside the Jackson County Courthouse.

Each shirt will represent a victim of domestic violence this past year in Indiana and will be part of the Clothesline Project.

That project is being organized by students from Brownstown Central Middle School participating in the Teens for Change program.

The Clothesline Project, being completed with the help of Turning Point Domestic Violence Services of Jackson County, is part of activities designed around Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

The students decided to seek help from county commissioners, who gave them approval earlier this week during their meeting to use a section of the fence in front of the courthouse.

The T-shirts will be designed and hung by students and displayed from Oct. 26 through Oct. 31.

The number of T-shirts to be hung won’t be released until sometime this week. That number will be based upon domestic violence deaths in the state between June 30, 2017, and June 30 of this year, said Charlotte Moss, community services director for Turning Point Domestic Violence Services in Jackson County.

The students’ Clothesline Project will be conducted in conjunction with a Clothesline Project at Cummins Seymour Engine Plant.

The first Clothesline Project took place in 2013 outside that plant on East Fourth Street Road.

The 2017 Clothesline Project at Cummins featured the T-shirts containing the names of 56 domestic violence victims, including three from Jackson County, Moss said.

She said she did not know of any victims of domestic violence in the county this past year.

The Clothesline Project is a nationwide program that began in 1990 in Massachusetts to raise awareness of the issue and impact of domestic violence.

Moss said she would like to see more Clothesline Projects in other communities in the future.

The project is a powerful message for people to understand how many people die each year from domestic violence, she said.

Moss said the Teens for Change program is designed to teach students about the importance of healthy relationships, leadership and more.

She said the students have rallied behind the project and wanted to see it displayed somewhere in their community.

“They’re awesome and want people to know,” she said. “Unless you work at Cummins, you don’t really see it. If you’ve seen it, it’s so powerful.”

Moss said since the students are involved in the process, it makes a significant impact.

“It becomes personal to them,” she said.