Stay Safe
Stay Safe
Practical, evidence-informed tools to help you understand risk, preserve your options, and stay safer—without fear, spectacle, or victim blame.
Safety information may help people recognize patterns, document conduct, consider options, and reach appropriate support. It cannot predict or prevent every act of harm. Responsibility always belongs to the person causing harm—not the person targeted.
Ungated resources
Immediate Help
These contacts are U.S.-based. Outside the United States, use your local emergency number and qualified local survivor services.
Immediate physical danger or urgent medical help
Call 911 or your local emergency services when it is safe to do so.
911 is for immediate danger and emergency response.
Suicide, mental-health, or substance-use crisis
Call or text 988, or use 988 Lifeline chat.
988 provides crisis support. It does not replace 911 for immediate physical danger.
Domestic violence or coercive control
National Domestic Violence Hotline: call 800-799-SAFE (7233) or text START to 88788.
Free, confidential advocate support is available 24/7.
Sexual assault support
RAINN National Sexual Assault Hotline: call 800-656-HOPE (4673) or text HOPE to 64673.
Free, confidential support is available 24/7.
Human trafficking support
National Human Trafficking Hotline: call 888-373-7888 or text 233733.
Specialized support and referrals are available 24/7.
NEP is not an emergency, counseling, medical, or legal service. You never need to subscribe, buy anything, or read a case file to use the resources above.
Understand, do not diagnose
Recognize a Pattern
A concerning behavior may deserve attention without proving what will happen next. Look for repetition, persistence, loss of freedom, boundary violations, or escalation. A trained advocate can help consider the full context without pushing you toward a predetermined choice.
Coercive Control: Recognizing Patterns and Considering Options
Understand patterns of power and control, possible signs, technology concerns, and options for support—without treating a checklist as a diagnosis.
Read the guide → Focused guideStalking: Documentation, Digital Safety, and Finding Help
Learn how patterns may appear across channels, what may be useful to preserve, and why safety planning should come before abrupt technology changes.
Read the guide →Risk factors are not predictions. A documented factor can help a specialist assess context; it cannot guarantee that harm will or will not occur, and no public checklist can evaluate an individual situation.
Preserve your options
Practical Safety Tools
Use a safer device when monitoring is possible
If someone may have access to your phone, accounts, vehicle, or connected devices, consider using a different device before researching help. Abruptly removing access or a tracker can sometimes alert the person monitoring you. Review the Safety Net Project technology plan.
Document only when it is safe for you
A dated record may help show a pattern if you later seek advocacy, workplace, school, civil, or criminal-justice support. Storage location and device access matter. SPARC provides a stalking documentation log and handbook.
Build a plan around your real responsibilities
A personalized plan may consider communication, transportation, medications, documents, money, children, pets, work, school, disability access, and the risks of different choices. A trained advocate can help without ordering you to leave. Start with the Hotline’s safety-planning resources.
Keep first meetings flexible and public when practical
For a first meeting with someone known online, options may include verifying identity through another channel, choosing a public staffed location, arranging your own transportation, and telling a trusted person your plan. These are options, not guarantees; the person causing harm remains responsible. See RAINN’s safer-dating guidance.
Help without taking away autonomy
Listen without judgment, ask what would be useful, and avoid ultimatums that may increase isolation. The person closest to the situation often knows risks that are not visible to others. The Hotline offers guidance for friends and family.
Optional safety and court updates
Request the printable Stay Safe Field Guide.
Immediate physical danger: call 911 or local emergency services. Suicide, mental-health, or substance-use crisis support: call or text 988. No signup is required for help.
Use this optional subscription form to request the printable Stay Safe Field Guide and receive NEP updates. Updates may include This Week in Court, plain-English explainers, and practical safety guidance—without sensationalism or victim blame. This email is not emergency support or a personalized safety plan. Unsubscribe anytime.
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Safety and the public record
What the record can teach us—without blaming the victim.
When a court record supports a practical lesson, NEP may explain the documented behavior and the limits of the evidence. One case does not predict another. No safety choice transfers responsibility away from the person who caused harm.
Open the verified Court Calendar →
The optional subscriber form above connects practical safety tools with NEP updates that may include This Week in Court. Emergency and crisis resources remain separate and ungated.
Sources and review standard
Reviewed August 9, 2026. Material safety and contact information on this hub was checked against the National Domestic Violence Hotline, SPARC, NNEDV Safety Net Project, 988 Lifeline, RAINN, National Human Trafficking Hotline, and WomensLaw.
This is general education, not individualized legal, medical, emergency, or safety advice. Services, laws, and risks vary by location and circumstance.