Small changes, big impact

#NoSafeHaven’s mission is to encourage small, day-to-day actions which go towards stamping out domestic abuse in our society. The key is that these steps are both safe and meaningful. Safety is the priority, because standing up to an abuser be dangerous and safety must come first.

The good news is that standing up doesn’t have to mean saying anything at all. Positive action is as simple as not laughing when someone makes a disparaging joke about their partner. It’s turning away rather than towards someone showing you an explicit image of their partner which may have been taken without their partner’s consent. It’s not answering the phone to someone you know is abusing their partner or crossing the street when you see them coming rather than letting them tell you their stories, in which they so often twist the narrative and victim-blame.

Abusers thrive on attention and the reactions of others, whether good, bad or ugly. Take away your interest in them and they start to lose their power.