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    Safety Planning - When Violence Hits Home

    If you are in immediate danger, please call 911 or the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233.

    Find Help Near You
    Create a Safety Plan

    Safety Planning

    A safety plan is a personalized, practical plan to improve your safety while experiencing abuse, preparing to leave an abusive situation, or after you leave. The most dangerous times for a victim of domestic violence are while they are leaving the abuser and after they have left the abuser.

    If you are living in an abusive relationship, consider making your safety plan with a trusted relative, friend, or professional.

    What is a safety plan?

    A safety plan is a set of actions that can help lower your risk of being hurt by your partner. It includes information specific to you and your life that will increase your safety at school, home, and other places that you go on a daily basis.

    1. 1

      Call the police if you are in danger and need help.

    2. 2

      Keep a spare set of keys, a set of clothes, important papers, prescriptions, and money with someone you trust.

    3. 3

      Keep any evidence of physical abuse (ripped clothes, photos of bruises and injuries, etc.)

    4. 4

      Plan the safest time to get away.

    5. 5

      Know where you can go for help, tell someone what is happening to you. Have the phone numbers of friends, relatives and domestic violence programs with you.

    6. 6

      If you are injured, go to the hospital emergency room or doctor and report what happened to you, ask that they document your visit.

    7. 7

      Plan with your children and identify a safe place for them; a room with a lock or a neighbor's house where they can go for help. Reassure them their job is to stay safe, not protect you.

    8. 8

      Arrange a signal with a neighbor, e.g., if the porch light is on call the police.

    Make a Safety Plan

    This tool will ask you series of questions to help you identify your safety options. At the end of the process, you will have a printable version of your personalized safety plan that you can reference whenever you need it.

    Make a plan