Safety Planning
Quickly Exit Site.
A safety plan explores ways to remain safe when someone has hurt you or you are feeling unsafe.
Safety planning is often used with people to create safety after an intimate partner has hurt them and and can be used if they are staying in the relationship, planning on leaving, or have already left. A safety plan can also be used when someone is experiencing stalking or have experienced sexual violence. A safety plan can be for the short term (planning around one incident or occasion) or the long term (an ongoing process).
A safety plan should meet your needs, and be practical.
Safety planning can involve the following:
- How to cope with emotions and what has happened to you,
- How to tell friends and family about the abuse,
- Options for taking legal action,
- How to stay safe at home or in public,
- Or anything else that feels important or comfortable for you!
Thinking about a safety plan or coming up with a plan can be overwhelming. Whether you want to talk about your options or start creating your own safety plan, you can connect with a confidential advocate for help. Please use the quick link to the right or click on Connect with an Advocate on the menu. You can also learn more about OAP staff by selecting Meet Our Team.
Example Plans and Resources
You can always meet with an advocate to get assistance and support in the safety planning process, which may be helpful in identifying safety risks not commonly thought of. Connect with an advocate through the Outreach and Advocacy Project for in-depth safety support.
- Women’s Law offers safety planning resources specific to domestic violence, stalking, court, rural areas, and more.
- The Center for Relationship Abuse Awareness offers safety plan information and example templates related to safety planning at college, in the workplace, with children, and more.
- NO LONGER WORKS FORGE provides safety planning material specific to Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming survivors: A Guide for Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming Individuals Who are Experiencing Intimate Partner Violence
- Love is Respect provides general information related to safety planning as well as a self-directed interactive safety plan online: Interactive Safety Plan
On Campus
- Confidential:
- Outreach & Advocacy Project Confidential Advocates
- Non-Confidential:
- Office of Student Conduct and Community Support
- Through this office, PCC may be able to offer accommodations to support safety. You can find out more information on the Reporting Options (Link) tab.
- Campus Public Safety
- Students can always request a public safety officer to escort them to and from classes, to their car in the parking lot, or any other location on campus, if it would help them feel safer. Call the PCC non-emergency public safety line to do so:
- Non-Emergency Line: 971-722-4902
- Emergency Line: 971-722-4444
- Students can always request a public safety officer to escort them to and from classes, to their car in the parking lot, or any other location on campus, if it would help them feel safer. Call the PCC non-emergency public safety line to do so:
- Office of Student Conduct and Community Support
Protection Orders
A protection order can be something that some requests from the legal system in order to become safer from an abusive person or someone who have hurt them. Typically a protection order is just one part of a more broad safety plan. There are 5 major types of protection orders which are listed below. You can always speak with an advocate here at PCC to discuss your options and whether or not you are eligible for a protection order, see contact information to the right.
- Sexual Abuse Protection Order: a Sexual Abuse Protection Order (SAPO) is available in certain cases where a person was subjected to unwanted sexual abuse by another person who is not a family member or intimate partner.
- Family Abuse Prevention Act Orders: (Most Common Form of Protection Order, also known as Restraining Order): a FAPA order prohibits the person who is causing harm from engaging in a certain behavior to the person filing the order.
- Stalking Order: a Stalking Order is a court order that tells a person who has made unwanted contact with you or a member of your immediate family or household to stop this behavior.
- Extreme Risk Protection Order: an Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPO) is a court order that prevents a person who is at risk of hurting another person or committing suicide from having or getting deadly weapons, including firearms.
- Elderly Persons and Persons with Disabilities Abuse Prevention Act (EPPDAPA) is a court order that orders the respondent, or the person named in the order, to stop threatening or abusing, and to stay away from you or the elderly or disabled person you are filing on behalf of.
- Restraining order hotline: Volunteers of America HomeFree provides a hotline specifically geared towards answering any questions related to protection orders. You can call this number during business hours (Monday through Friday, 9am-5pm) to speak with an advocate about whether or not a protection order is right for you, eligibility requirements, and safety planning.
- 503-802-0506