Phone Communications: A Guide for Anti-Violence Organizations

This document is for staff who need to communicate with survivors via telephone. For information on organizational policies around phone use such as caller ID and phone records, see Best Practices for Phone Communications.

To ensure privacy and safety, please consider the following when using phones to communicate with women, children, and youth you are supporting.

Before calling a survivor, find out if and when it is safe for you to call. Some survivors may have abusers who are monitoring phone calls. Some survivors may have privacy concerns if they have not disclosed the abuse to friends, family, roommates, or coworkers. It’s important to allow the survivor to determine the callback time and process.

Before leaving a message or voicemail with someone other than the survivor, talk to the survivor about their safety and privacy needs and what kind of information (if any) to leave in your message. Work with the survivor to choose options that best suit their current situation and remember to check in with them regularly to see if their needs have changed.

If you have not been able to discuss safety issues before leaving a message with the survivor, leave a vague message. You might decide to include your name and the reason you are calling, but not the name of your organization or even your phone number. Your message could be: “Hello, this is [your name]. I’m returning your call from this morning. [If it’s vague enough, include about what.] You were asking for some information. You can call me back between the hours of 9‐5, Monday through Friday.”

TIP: Do not be too vague or you might cause confusion. For example, leaving a message like this: “Hi, it’s [your first name]. Call me back when you have a moment,” could be too vague. If she was not expecting you to call her, she might ignore it or be concerned that someone whose name she does not recognize has her number.

Since many callers may be using cell phones, dropped calls may occur or they may need to hang up quickly for safety or privacy reasons. Ask the survivor ahead of time what protocol works best for them. Do they prefer that you call them back or have you wait for them to call you back? This is particularly important for hotline calls. Let the caller know what your organization’s practice is when a call is dropped; for example, you can’t call them back, but they can call the hotline again at any time.

To support your development of safe tech use policies, WSC has developed a Use of Technology Policy Template Guide for Women’s Shelters and Transition Houses (PDF, in English only).

Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence (TFGBV) is part of a continuum of violence that can be both online and in-person. If you or someone you know is experiencing TFGBV, you are not alone. You can use sheltersafe.ca to find a shelter/transition house near you to discuss options and create a safety plan. You don’t need to stay in a shelter to access free, confidential services and support.

Adapted for Canada with permission from NNEDV’s Safety Net project, based on their resource Agency’s Guide to Phone Communication.