Jackson Free Press

- If you are injured, go to a doctor or an emergency room and report what happened to you. Ask that they document your visit.
- Plan with your children and identify a safe place for them (for example, a room with a lock or a friend's house where they can go for help). Reassure them that their job is to stay safe, not to protect you.
- Contact your local battered women's shelter and find out about laws and other resources available to you before you have to use them during a crisis.
- Keep a journal of all violent incidences, noting dates, events and threats made if possible.
- Try to set money aside or ask friends or family members to hold money for you.
- You can request a police stand-by or escort while you leave.
- If you need to sneak away, be prepared. Make a plan for how and where you will escape.
- Put aside emergency money as you can.
- Hide an extra set of car keys.
- Pack an extra set of clothes for yourself and your children and store them at a trusted friend or neighbor's house. Try to avoid using next-door neighbors, close family members and mutual friends.
- Take with you important phone numbers of friends, relatives, doctors, schools, etc., as well as other important items, including: driver's license; regularly needed medication; list of credit cards held by self or jointly, or the credit cards themselves if you have access to them; pay stubs and checkbooks and information about bank accounts and other assets. (If you have the time, also take: citizenship documents (such as your passport, greencard, etc.); titles, deeds and other property information; medical records; children's school records and immunization records; insurance information; a copy of marriage license, birth certificates, will and other legal documents; verification of social security numbers; welfare identification; and valued pictures, jewelry, or personal possessions.
- Create a false trail. Call motels, real estate agencies, schools in a town at least six hours away from where you plan to relocate. Ask questions that require a call back to your house in order to leave phone numbers on record.

Source: Madison, Wis., Police Department

Previous Comments

ID

80667

Comment

Bump. This is some GREAT advice. Cheers, TH

Author

Tom Head

Date

2006-10-21T16:05:58-06:00

ID

80668

Comment

Or at least I assume it is. I'm not an expert on any of this--it's just that this list produced at least four "That's brilliant!" reactions from me... Cheers, TH

Author

Tom Head

Date

2006-10-21T16:07:19-06:00