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Elements of a Security Contingency Plan; you need to develop a plan to increase your security. Prepare it in advance to avoid the risk of increased violence. Even if you have no control over your partner's violence, you have choices about how to respond to it and keep yourself and your children safe. Keep your plan in a safe place.

• Create an escape route. Know where the firearms are in the house.
• Know where you can go to be safe, even if it's just to make a phone call.
• If you have been a victim of violence in the past, make sure the police are familiar with your situation.
• Program emergency numbers into the phone (residential home, neighbours, people who can help you).
• Talk to your neighbours and other people you can trust. Inform them of the situation so they can be alert and call the police if they are concerned.
• Call a transition house and talk to the staff members. You should consider choosing a code word so they know who you are if you need to call them in a crisis.
• Hide some cash if possible, and an extra set of car keys so you can leave quickly.
• Talk to children. They need to know which neighbours they can go to in an emergency and how to use the phone to call the police.
• Make a list of items to carry so you know where to find them in an emergency. Here are some items that may be important:
• 1. money, bank books, credit cards;
  2. clothes for you and your children for a few days;
  3. medicines you or your children may need;
  4. house keys, car keys;
  5. identity papers;
  6. important documents: birth and marriage certificates, social insurance numbers, divorce documents, custody documents, court orders, injunctions, tax returns;
  7. medical assistance cards for you and your children;
  8. medical records and vaccination records;
  9. First Nation status card;
  10. immigration and citizenship certificates, passports for all family members;
  11. working license;
  12. children's favourite toys, books and blankets;
  13. copies of your lease, mortgage or other deed;
  14. photo of your spouse or partner (for identification purposes);
  15. your address book and telephone numbers;
  16. registration certificate, driver's license, automobile insurance certificate;
  17. goods or books that you care about (objects that comfort you).
• Consider packing an emergency bag containing some of the aforementioned items in case you need to leave quickly. You can't take everything. Take only what you will need for a few days. You can leave the bag with a friend if necessary.
• It's probably a good idea to seek advice from legal counsel or others now, even before an emergency arises.
• If you are in danger, call 911 immediately.