safety alert

If you are in danger, please use a safer computer, call 911 or your local hotline or call the National Domestic Violence Hotline: 1-800-799-SAFE (7233 voice), 1-800-787-3224 (tty). There is always a computer trail, but you can click ESCAPE to leave the site quickly.

Understanding Safety Planning

Safety planning is a process in which a service provider and client come up with a number of plans that can keep the client safe in various, dangerous situations. When drafting safety plans with your client, it is important to remember that she has probably been taking steps to secure her safety for a long time. She is an expert in her situation and generally has a good sense of what will increase or decrease her risk.

Safety planning involves building on the efforts the client is already making to manage her situation, by gathering information about local domestic violence resources and legal rights, creating detailed plans for reacting to various dangerous situations, and providing support and encouragement. A survivor generally has safety plans that address a variety of settings or scenarios - including planning for safety when a victim/survivor lives with the abuser/perpetrator/stalker, when they live apart, when the victim/survivor is in danger in public or when the victim/survivor is at work.

Tasks to Develop a Safety Plan

Identify safe people to turn to for help and how to reach them in an emergency;
Develop strategies for escaping dangerous situations at home, at work, or in public;
Put together a bag with emergency supplies and important documents, such as clothing, toothbrush, money, extra keys, and bank and personal records.

Assisting survivors with planning for safety is very important. Safety planning is an ongoing task, which should be revisited regularly as time passes or as the client makes changes. It should be done whether the client chooses to remain in the relationship or leave it.

A local violence against women agency will be able to help you and your client think through a more thorough plan. To prepare for this, communicate with local violence against women programs in your community. Once you have contact with a local program, it will make it easier to work with them around the needs of a specific client.

Safety Planning Resources to Guide You

Victims/survivors may implement a variety of strategies to increase their safety. Helping them think through these strategies and plans will be crucial to helping women empower themselves to make the best decisions they can in any given incident. It is important, too, to keep in mind that the victim/survivor is an expert in her situation and will have a good sense of what will increase or decrease her risk. Safety planning with her is really a way for her to more consciously think through her options and plans. Please see the box below for Related Links that provide more resources.

Note: Some of the resources listed in this section are available as PDF files. In order to view PDFs you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your computer. If you do not have this software installed, you can download Acrobat Reader for free on Adobe's web site.