On the day five years ago that businesses all across Maine went dark due to COVID-19, the award-winning Finding Our Voices campaign breaking the silence of domestic abuse came to light.
Businesses were shuttered on March 25, 2020 in a public health directive by Gov. Janet T. Mills. On that very day, the route from Camden to Rockland was suddenly alive with the faces and voices of 14 Maine women domestic abuse survivors. As a survivor, Patrisha McLean had quickly put together the 4- by 2-foot posters to mitigate the spike in domestic abuse she knew the social distancing would bring. Seventy merchants provided the exhibit space of their street-facing windows for the two weeks stipulated in the shutdown.
Five years later, the “Women in Windows” domestic abuse awareness poster campaign has spread to more than 100 towns across Maine. Fifty Maine women survivors aged 21 to 85 are “standing proud and speaking loud” about what they transcended, according to McLean, in order to provide hope to their sister survivors and education to the general public. Meanwhile, the local Finding Our Voices exhibit has grown into a statewide nonprofit, breaking the silence and stigma with survivor-led rallies and panel discussions, and valuable resources to thousands of Maine victims/survivors including financial assistance, access to donated dental care, and online support groups.
“The posters crystallize how our grassroots nonprofit is breaking the silence of domestic abuse one conversation and community at a time,” said McLean, Finding Our Voices CEO and founder. Photo portraits of strong and dignified women destigmatize domestic abuse, while the accompanying quotes recontextualize the issue by describing emotional, financial and sexual abuse. The survivor quotes include, “He called me a loser, stupid, and crazy”; “It took me many years to call it what it was: Rape” and “She made me lose my friends, and myself.”
The quote by the governor, who joined the campaign in 2022, is, “Years ago, a man I loved threatened my life. Escape from violence is possible.”
The posters are in three sizes and in addition to downtown business windows are in bathrooms, changing rooms and employee break rooms, as well as in libraries, town offices, hospitals, social service agencies and schools.
McLean said the design is regularly tweaked in order to keep the campaign fresh, with the 2025 version featuring survivor stars in pairs to reflect the growing sisterhood of Finding Our Voices. She said that throughout the year, local survivors and supporters gather in various towns — wearing yellow that is the color of the nonprofit — to get the posters up, along the way having meaningful conversations about domestic abuse with the community’s business owners, managers, and customers.
“We couldn’t be more grateful,” she said, “to the thousands of Maine merchants who donate valuable advertising space of their windows to our poster campaign, letting the victims/survivors know they are not alone and of the help and support that Finding Our Voices provides, and that this community cares about them.”
Finding Our Voices breaks the silence and shatters the stigma of domestic abuse across Maine with groundbreaking public awareness programs that bring about systemic change and meaningful resources that empower women to heal and rebuild their lives. For more information about Finding Our Voices including the podcast and book club and how to get help, volunteer, and donate, visit https://findingourvoices.net.
