How to Protect Yourself

How to Protect Yourself at Home

• Learn where to get help; memorize emergency phone numbers
• Keep a phone in a room you can lock from the inside
• If the abuser has moved out, change the locks on your door; put locks on the windows
• Plan an escape route out of your home: teach it to your children
• Think about where you would go if you need to escape
• Ask your neighbors to call the police if they see the abuser at your house; make a signal for them to call the police, for example, if the phone rings twice, a shade is pulled down or a light is on
• Pack a bag with important things you'd need if you had to leave quickly; put it in a safe place, or give it to a friend or relative you trust
• Include cash, car keys, and important information such as court papers, passport or birth certificates, medical records and medicines, immigration papers
• Get an unlisted and unpublished phone number
• Block caller ID
• Use an answering machine; screen the calls

How to Protect Yourself Outside the Home

• Change your regular travel habits
• Try to get rides with different people
• Shop and bank in different locations
• Cancel any bank accounts or credit cards you shared; open new accounts at a different bank
• Keep your court order and emergency numbers with you at all times

How to Make Yourself Safer at Work

• Keep a copy of your court order at work
• Give a picture of the abuser to security and friends at work
• Tell your supervisors what is happening
• Don't go to lunch alone
• Ask a security guard to walk you to your car
• Save messages the abuser might leave you at work