HAVE A PLAN...and USE IT.

• Identify a variety of ways to get out of your home safely and practice using your escape route.

• Pack a bag with important documents, money, keys, etc. and hide it. Consider changing the hiding spot if your abuser searches the home.
• Keep prescription drugs in your purse.

• Arrange a signal with neighbors to let them know when you need help (turning on a porch light during the day, pulling down a particular window shade).

• Devise a code word to use with your children, grandchildren, friends, or others to indicate that you need the police.

• Decide and plan for where you will go if you must leave (even if you don’t think you will need to).
• Keep an extra change of clothes at a friend’s house.

• Try to go to a room or area with access to on exit. Avoid rooms with no outside doors and those containing potential weapons (kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, and garage).

• Try to stay in a room with a phone to call 911, a friend or neighbor.

• Inform law enforcement if weapons are in the home.

• Visualize your escape route and be prepared to use it if a safe opportunity arises.

• Use your code word or special signal to tell your children or neighbors to call 911.

• Use your instinct and judgment to safely assess what to do next.

• Open a savings account in your name at a different bank. Consider direct deposit of your paycheck or benefit check. Begin to increase your independence.

• Leave money, an extra set of keys, copies of important documents and extra clothes with someone you trust.

• Have your abuser’s social security number and license plate number with you to provide to the police.

• Bring medications, prescriptions, hearing aids, glasses, etc.

• Determine who would let you stay with them or lend you money.

• Keep Sojourner’s number with you and have some change at all times for emergency phone calls. (330)-747-4040 or (866)-436-6269

• If you are 60 years or older, contact Adult Protective Services to learn about eligibility for public and private benefits and services.

• Review your safety plan regularly to plan the safest way to leave.

• Change the locks on your doors as soon as possible. Buy additional locks and safety devices to secure your windows. Consider increasing your outside lighting.

• If you have children or other dependents living with you, discuss a safety plan for when you are not with them. Inform their school, day care, etc. about who has permission to pick them up.

• Inform neighbors and your landlord that your abuser no longer lives with you and they should call the police if they see your abuser near your home.

• Keep your protection order with you at all times. If it is lost or destroyed you can get another copy from the County Clerk of Courts.

• Call police if your abuser violates the protection order.

• If your protection order is out of state, register it with your local police and/or clerk of courts.

• Give copies to anyone with whom your children may stay (schools, day care, etc.).

• Decide who to inform of your situation (school, office or building security), and provide a picture of your abuser. Consider having your phone calls screened.

• Devise a safety plan for when you are out in public. Have someone escort you to your car, bus, or taxi. Use a variety of routes to go home and consider what you would do if something happened on your way home.

• If you are considering returning to a potentially abusive situation, discuss an alternative plan with someone you trust.

• If you have to communicate with your abuser, do so in the safest way – by phone, mail, in the company of another person, etc.

• Decide who you can talk with freely and who can provide the support you need. Consider calling Sojourner House’s 24-hour hotline or attending a support group. (330)-747-4040 or (866)-436-6269

• Decide which friend, teacher, relative, or police officer you can tell.

• Contact Sojourner House to learn about making a safety plan.

• Driver’s license or other form of ID

• Your birth certificate and those of family members

• Money, bank books, checkbooks, credit cards, ATM cards, mortgage payment book

• Social Security card, work permit, green card, passport, insurance papers, medical records

• Your abuser’s social security number and license plate number

• Divorce and custody papers

• Copies of your protection order

• Lease, rental agreement, house deed

• Keys to house, car, office

• Medications, glasses, hearing aids, etc. for you and your children or other dependents

• Personal items like address book, pictures, etc.

You have the right to feel safe. Home can sometimes be a place that is not safe because someone is using their body and/or words to hurt the people in your home. This safety plan for you to follow when someone in your home becomes violent, and you feel scared.

MY ESCAPE PLAN

• I will know how to call 911 or 0 for help.
• I can tell a family member or a friend.
• I can talk with my schoolteacher or counselor.
• I can save money for a phone call at a pay phone.
• If I have a house key, I will keep it in a safe place.
• I will keep a few of my favorite things together in case we have to leave suddenly.