Housing and Safety
Safety and Planning
Your safety is the most important thing to SAP. Often the most dangerous time for someone who is in an abusive relationship is when they try to leave. Safety planning is a necessary and important step when experiencing abuse. Safety planning includes identifying safe places where you can go, people who you can talk to, ensuring that you have phone access at all times, etc.
For more information about creating a safety plan, please visit the or make an appointment with a SAP advocate.
For those who are experiencing stalking, it can be critical to maintain a log of stalking-related incidents and behavior. Recording this information can help preserve your memory of individual incidents you may choose to report. Download a copy of SAP鈥檚 stalking log [PDF].
Shelter
It is important to feel safe where you are living. By choosing to go to a shelter, you can access individual counseling, group counseling and case management. Shelters can assist you with personal needs such as housing, food, education, employment opportunities and legal advocacy.
My Sister鈥檚 Place
My Sister鈥檚 Place is the domestic violence shelter in Athens. They have an Outreach Coordinator that is available to meet your needs in Athens, Hocking and Vinton counties. This outreach coordinator can provide help with safety planning. The location of the shelter is kept confidential for the safety of residents. You can find more information about on their website.
91探花 Housing & Residence Life
The Survivor Advocacy Program works closely with the Department of Housing & Residence Life when student survivors need assistance changing housing arrangements due to a traumatic incident(s). If this applies to you, do not hesitate to reach out to a SAP advocate for assistance in relocation.
Internet Safety
As you browse the internet on your computer or your phone, your browser's web history stores the websites you visit. Even though you can delete the history of the sites you have visited, there are tools that can be used to retrieve this information. Most browsers include a private browsing mode, which will not store information or track browsing history. It is recommended to use these modes as much as possible when browsing sensitive information that you do not want your abuser to know you are viewing.
Quick Escape Button
You will notice a banner along the bottom of each page on our website that states "Click to leave this website and quickly redirect to google". This button is designed so you can quickly escape our webpage if your abuser enters the room. If you are worried that someone may be monitoring your computer use, review the information below about computer safety.
Social Media
Only post things that you are comfortable with the public seeing or knowing. Be very protective of your personal information such as phone numbers, addresses, birth date, home town, or other similar information that can give an abuser plenty of ways to locate and/or monitor you. In addition to not posting personal information about yourself, tell your friends and people close to you to not post anything personal about you either and to not tag you in photos that you are uncomfortable with.