Domestic Violence Safety Plan
If you are in immediate danger: don't wait! Call 911

Personal safety when in a relationship with an abuser

Do not keep quiet. Tell a family member or friend.
Try not to let the abuser trap you in a kitchen where knives can be used as weapons, or in small places like bathrooms.
If violence is unavoidable, make yourself a small target. Get into a corner and curl up into a ball. Protect your face and put your arms around your head, with your fingers entwined in back.
Back the car into the driveway and keep it fueled. Keep the driver's door unlocked - but the other doors locked - for a quick escape.
Try not to wear scarves or long jewelry that can be used to grab and strangle

Give someone you trust a spare set of keys, some emergency money, extra clothes, and photocopies of protection orders, birth certificates, divorce/custody/separation agreements, passports, medical prescriptions, bank cards and credit cards.
Contact your local battered woman's shelter or community resource center to find out about your legal rights and the services available to you.
Acquire job skills if you can - such as computer skills at a community college or vocational school.
Plan NOW for a safe place for you and your children to go.
Have a backup plan in case your first plan does not work

You can request a police stand-by or escort while you leave. Call your police district.
Take important things with you: phone numbers of friends, relatives, doctors, and schools; your driver's license, credit cards, bank cards, checkbook, insurance records, and pay stubs; medicine that you regularly take.
Create a false trail. Make inquiries at motels, real estate agencies, or schools in a town at least six hours away from where you are actually located. Ask them to call you back with answers in order to leave phone numbers on record, and make the abuser think you have gone off to a different place.

Keep a copy of your restraining order at home, in your car, at work, in your purse. It must be with you at all times. Should you call the police to arrest him, you must have a copy of the restraining order with you.
If you are getting a restraining order and the abuser is leaving your home, change all the locks, and get an unlisted phone number. Change the route you usually take to work.
If you are getting a restraining order, and YOU are leaving home, rent a post office box for your mail or use the address of a trusted friend; be aware that addresses are on restraining orders and police reports.
Change your work hours if possible.
Consider changing your children's schools and make sure the schools have a copy of the restraining order.
Alert your neighbors, co-workers, and security personnel at your workplace. Have your calls screened, and if possible, give a picture of the abuser to security or the receptionist.
Ask your telephone company about Caller ID. Ask that your phone be blocked so that if you call, neither your abuser nor anyone else will be able to get your new, unlisted number