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Pink Leather Bag

Staying Safe

SAFETY BEFORE AN EXPLOSIVE INCIDENT: 

  • Practice leaving your home safely. 

  • Identify which doors, windows, elevator(s), or stairwell(s) would be best to use in an emergency.

  • Have a packed bag ready and keep it at a relative's or friend's home in case you need to leave your home quickly. 

  • Identify one or more neighbors you can tell about the violence and ask that they call the police if they hear a disturbance coming from your home. 

  • Decide whether you need to leave your home and think about how to leave safely. 

  • Think about how to safely take your child(ren) with you if you do need to leave. 

  • Designate a "safe place" for your child(ren) where they may go if necessary (and where you will know to meet them).

  • Decide and plan for where you will go if you need to leave home quickly (even if you don't think you will need to leave). 

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

  • Teach your children to dial 911.

STAYING SAFE DURING AN EXPLOSIVE INCIDENT:

  • If an incident seems unavoidable, try to have it in a room or area where you have access to an exit. Try to stay away from the bathroom, kitchen, bedroom or anywhere else where weapons might be available. 

  • Use your own instincts and judgment. Consider giving the abuser what he/she wants to calm her/him down. You have the right to protect yourself until you are out of danger. 

  • Call the person with whom you have identified a safety code word. 

  • Tell your children to call 911; go to the designated safe place; inform the neighbors. 

  • Always remember — YOU DON'T DESERVE TO BE HIT OR THREATENED 

SAFETY WHEN PREPARING
TO LEAVE:

  • Open a savings account and/or credit card in your own name to increase your options. Think of other ways in which you can increase your independence. 

  • Leave money, an extra set of keys, copies of important documents, extra medicines and clothes with someone you trust so you can leave quickly. 

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

  • Discuss a safety plan with your child(ren) for when you are not with them. 

  • Inform your child(ren)'s school, day care, etc., about who has permission to take your child(ren). 

  • Keep the shelter or hotline phone number close at hand and keep some change or a calling card on you at all times for emergency phone calls. 

  • Review your safety plan as often as possible in order to plan the safest way to leave. 

  • Remember — LEAVING MAY BE YOUR MOST DANGEROUS TIME. 

CHECKLIST OF WHAT TO TAKE WITH YOU:

Identification

  Driver's License
  Child(ren)'s birth certificate(s) 
  Your birth certificate 
  Social Security cards (you & your children)
  Welfare identification 

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Financial Papers
  Money and/or credit cards (warning: cards can be traced)
  Bank books 
  Checkbooks 

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Legal Papers
  Your Restraining Order
  Lease, rental contract, house deed, rent receipts
  Car registration & insurance papers 
  Medical records for you & your children 
  School records 
  Work permits/Green card/Visa 
  Passport 
  Marriage Certificate/License 
  Divorce papers 
  Custody papers 
  Any other court papers

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