close Exit Site If you are in danger, please use a safer computer, or call a local hotline, or the U.S. National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 and TTY 1-800-787-3224, or 911 if it is safe to do so. Learn more technology safety tips. There is always a computer trail, but you can leave this site quickly.
Donate Now Exit Site
Action Alert

Get involved! Sign up for NNEDV's emails today. [Read More]

Take Action

Summer Safety Planning with Children, Teens, and Young Adults

Email Hotline

July 14, 2025 | Return to REACH Hub
Ver la página en Español: Planificación de seguridad de verano con niñ@s, adolescentes y jóvenes adult@s

With so much excitement around summer break, kids may need help remembering safety essentials, like applying sunscreen, coming back home when the streetlights come on, or even stranger danger. For youth, it’s time to be free from school, though some children are worried about being at home.

School and after-school programming often become safer spaces for children who experience or witness domestic violence. These may be places where they can get respite from a harmful environment or seek help.

As providers, we can adapt the concept of safety planning for adult survivors to children by identifying a child’s support systems and safe spaces and teaching them to use code words to help indicate distress or danger. WomensLaw.org has an in-depth page with tips for how survivors with children can support their children and address safety concerns, even during times when an abuser is choosing to be violent.

Adults can start by challenging misconceptions about how domestic violence affects children. People may believe that children do not understand what abuse is, or that if they did not see the violence, it does not affect them. However, that may not be true. The National Child Traumatic Stress Network breaks down common reactions to domestic violence across different age groups under 18. Their website also has learning resources and references for therapy interventions that have been proven effective with child survivors and witnesses.

Summer can also be the season when teens and young adults connect with their crushes and enter the dating world. Teens may experience unhealthy or abusive behaviors in those relationships and hesitate to get help due to social pressures and fear of getting in trouble, especially if their relationship is secret. It may also be harder for young people to recognize unhealthy or abusive behaviors, simply because they don’t have as much experience being in a relationship – healthy or otherwise.

Organizations such as Day One and love is respect offer information about healthy relationships and support for those going through teen dating violence. Check out love is respect’s detailed and downloadable guide to safety planning for teens to get started. You can learn more about teen dating violence and ways to get help in the Teens and Young Adults section of WomensLaw.org.

For personalized referrals and information, especially with legal concerns or questions, the WomensLaw Email Hotline is available to help survivors of all ages.