Childrens Safety Plan
Most abused women are very concerned about trying to protect their children from abuse. If you are living with an abusive partner, you are probably doing many things on a daily basis to keep yourself and/or your children as safe as possible.
Unfortunately, your abusive partner is making his own decisions about how to behave, and he is responsible for his violence. Whether your child is seeing or hearing abuse, or being abused directly, the impact on your child may be the same.
In this section there are ideas that some women have found helpful to protect their children’s safety. Each person’s situation is unique, and you will know best whether these ideas will help you in your situation.
Some women choose to:
- Let her children if they hear or see abuse to go to a safe room or to a neighbour’s house.
- Talk about 3-5 people her children can go to for help (911, grandma, police, neighbour).
All children should know:
- Their address, phone number and full name.
- How to dial 911, what to say to them in an emergency and to stay on the line for help from the police.
It is important for you to know that in Alberta, the law states that children who are exposed to domestic violence are considered to be at risk of abuse themselves. This means that if your partner is abusing you and there are children in the family, any citizen or professional is obliged to report this to the appropriate authorities.
