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• Tell your children their only
job is to stay safe themselves, they do not have to protect you. They
must always run to safety, even without you |
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• Teach your children to leave
the room or not to come in the room where the danger is and which
room or trusted neighbour they should go to |
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• Practice and role-play safety plans with
your children including what to do and where to go if something violent
or scary happens. Talk to your children about scenarios. Make a game
out of this if they are young |
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• Let your children know that you might have
to leave quickly in order to protect yourselves. Practice a signal
and an escape plan with them. Call this a fire escape plan |
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• Instruct your children never to answer the
door or the phone |
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• Inform your children’s
school, doctors, and child care provider of your situation and give
them a copy of any and all court orders |
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• Inform these same people about
who is allowed to pick up your children or who is to have contact
with them. Request that they report any suspicious persons or activity
to police and/or to you |
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• Ensure that your children are
accompanied to and from school and any other places they go to |
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• If the abuser has legal access
to your child or children, talk to a lawyer about the possibility
of getting supervised access or having access denied |
| |
• If the abuser has access to the
children develop individual and group safety plans with the children
for the visits. The plans can include cues they are in danger, escape
plans from the location of the visit and who/where they can go for
help |
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• Arrangements can be made for
transporting your children to the access visits so that you do not
have to contact with the abuser. Ask someone you trust to drop them
off and pick them up. You can arrange for the children to be picked
up from a public location |
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• Make sure that your children
know how to use the phone. Provide change for the phone and know how
to call 911 and make a collect call to you |
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• Keep emergency numbers by all
phones |
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• Develop a visual or other code
for your children to know that there is danger so that they will not
enter the house or the room if they the code i.e. a light on or off. |
| |
• Contact a shelter or 24 hour
crisis line for women to find where programs for child witnesses of
violence are located. These programs are very helpful in teaching
children and women about safety. |
