SAFETY > SAFETY WITH AN ABUSER >

Protect and Prepare Yourself
Keep Evidence of Abuse
Develop Plans
What to Take With You
As You Are Leaving
After Obtaining a Restraining Order
If You Relocate

Develop Plans

• Plan with your children. Figure out a safe place for them to go. This might be a room with a lock or a friend's house where they can go for help. Make sure they know that their job is to stay safe, not to protect you.
• Contact your local domestic violence organization or battered women's shelter. They can tell you about laws and other resources available to you before you have to use them during a crisis.
• Try to set money aside. You can ask friends or family members to hold money for you.
• Make a plan for how you are going to leave and where you're going to go. Make a plan for leaving if you have time to prepare. Make another plan for leaving if you have to leave in a hurry.
• A worker at a domestic violence organization can help you make a plan to leave as safely as you can. Also, www.leavingabuse.com "Leaving Abuse Safely" can help you think of ways to leave safely.
• If you're going to leave secretly, plan ahead and cover your tracks. A domestic violence worker and www.leavingabuse.com "Leaving Abuse Safely"can help you come up with plan.
• You can ask the police to escort you out of the house as you're leaving. You can also ask them to be "on call" while you're leaving.