Domestic Violence - Safety Planning

What You Can Do

Consider taking any or all of the following steps, which could keep you and your children safe from further violence:

  • If an argument seems unavoidable, try to have it in an area that has access to an exit and not in a bathroom or anywhere there are weapons.

  • Practice how to get out of your home safely.  Identify which doors, windows, elevators, or stairwells would be best.

  • Identify a neighbor you can tell about the violence and ask that they call the police if they hear a disturbance in your home.

  • Devise a code to use with your children, family, friends, and neighbors when you need the police.

  • Leave money, an extra set of keys, copies of important papers, and extra clothes with someone you trust or store them away from your house.

  • Determine who would be able to let you stay with them or lend you some money.

  • Memorize the shelter telephone number and keep some change or a calling card on you at all times.

Once You Get an Injunction

  • Keep your injunction with you at all times.

  • Change you telephone number, purchase an answering machine, or have someone screen your calls, if possible.

  • Devise a safety plan for getting to your car when leaving home or work.

  • Change the locks on your doors as soon as possible and add locks and safety devices for all your windows.

  • Inform your children's school, day care, etc., about who has permission to pick them up.

  • Inform neighbors, landlords, and employers that your partner no longer lives with you, you have an injunction, and they should call the police if your partner comes around.

  • Report any threats, intimidation, or harassment to law enforcement immediately.

What To Take When You Leave

  • Identification
  • Driver's License
  • Children's Birth Certificates
  • Money
  • Lease, Rental Agreement, Deed
  • Checking/Savings Books
  • Insurance Papers
  • House and Car Keys
  • Medications/Medical Records
  • Address Book
  • Pictures
  • Social Security Card
  • Public Assistance ID
  • School Records
  • Work Permits/Green Cards
  • Passports
  • Divorce Papers
  • Jewelry
  • Children's Small Toys