Developing A Personal Safety Plan

Ensuring the personal safety of your family and yourself involves taking enough safety precautions at home and around the neighborhood, of having personal safety habits as part of your daily routine and of having a personal safety plan. Since not many people are aware of what exactly goes into a safety plan, we will provide you with step-by-step instructions on how to develop your own personal safety plan.

Step 1: Being aware of your surroundings is probably the first step in ensuring your personal safety. Always be on the lookout for any suspicious activity in your neighborhood or near your house, especially if you are alone at home or are walking alone. Learn to trust your instincts so that you can immediately seek help when you sense something is not quite right – teach other family members the same, including your children.

Step 2: You should know when to call 911 or other emergency services. Keep all emergency service numbers handy and in a location visible to all family members. Teach your children how to understand what may be a potential emergency situation and how they can call 911. They should be taught to give their name, address and their understanding of the situation.

Step 3: If you or any of your family members feels threatened by someone, they should speak to a friend or a close relative. Children too can feel threatened by strangers or at times by family members themselves. They should be told to speak freely to any adult they can trust in.

Step 4: When you are faced with a potentially violent situation, you should immediately take steps to escape from that situation. If the situation is with an attacker outside your home, yell and scream for help, throw a rock through a store window, do anything that you can to throw the attacker off guard and attract the attention of passers-by.

Unfortunately if such a situation develops at home, you should have a place in mind where you could go. It could be another family member’s house, a friend or even a shelter – it should be a place unknown to the person threatening violence against you.

Step 4: You should keep all the important paperwork in one easily accessible location. This would include your social security cards, financial documents, driver’s license, insurance and medical information about you and your children. You might want to make copies of these and hand them over to people whom you trust.

Step 5: If you feel threatened by intruders or by someone closer to you, you should install sturdier locks on your door. Get your wooden doors replaced by metal doors. They are certainly harder to break down than wooden ones are. You could also add more locks to all your doors and windows. Make sure you bolt them when you are alone and at night.

Step 6: There is always safety in numbers. If you go for workouts in the morning or stay in a less populated neighborhood, request for some friends or family member to escort you on your workouts and even while going up to the car. Try to stay within groups while on the road and walk in well-lit areas.