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. This plan includes vital information tailored to your unique situation and will help you prepare for and respond to different scenarios, including telling your friends and family about your situation, coping with emotions, and various resources suited to your individual circumstances.

Some of the preparations for a safety plan might seem obvious, but it can be hard to think clearly or make logical decisions during moments of crisis. Having a safety plan laid out in advance can help you protect yourself and others in high-stress situations.

1. Open a savings account in your own name.
2. Leave money, an extra set of keys, copies of important documents, medication and extra clothes with someone you trust, so you can leave quickly.
3. Determine who would let you stay with them or lend you money. Make arrangements for pets.
4. Keep the Family Shelter's helpline number close at hand (580-226-6424). Keep a calling card on you at all times for emergency phone calls.

1. Change the locks on your doors as soon as possible. Buy additional locks and safety devices to secure your windows.
2. Discuss a safety plan with your children. Discuss safety in the home and when you are not with them.
3. Inform your children’s school, day care, etc. about who has permission to pick up your children.
4. Inform neighbors and your landlord that your partner no longer lives with you and that they should call the police if they see your partner near your home.

1. If an argument seems unavoidable, try to have it in a room or area that has access to an exit and not a bathroom, kitchen or anywhere near weapons.
2. Practice how to get out of your home safely.
3. Have a packed bag ready and keep it hidden but accessible in order to leave quickly.
4. Ask a neighbor to call the police if they hear a disturbance coming from your home.
5. Devise a code word to use with your children, family, friends and neighbors when you need the police.
6. Decide and plan where you will go if you have to leave home (even if you don’t think you need to).
7. Use your own instincts to judge if the situation is dangerous. You have the right to protect yourself until you are out of danger.
8. Always remember, you don’t deserve to be hit or threatened.

Visit https://www.thehotline.org/plan-for-safety/create-a-safety-plan/ to create your own workable safety plan.

The Danger Assessment is an instrument that helps to determine the level of danger an abused woman has of being killed by her intimate partner. The tool was originally developed by Jacquelyn Campbell (1986) with consultation and content validity support from battered women, shelter workers, law enforcement officials, and other clinical experts on battering.