After supporting our community members over the phone and in person for more than four decades, we are so excited to announce that Steps to End Domestic Violence is expanding our services to include a chat line. We are getting with the times!

We know sometimes talking on the phone isn’t always the safest option - and frankly, sometimes sharing in writing just feels easier than saying things out loud. Beginning Monday, April 20th, the confidential end-to-end encrypted chat line will be available 8am to 5pm Monday through Friday, and you can access it on your phone, tablet, or computer. On the chat line, you can chat with an advocate one-on-one to talk things out, safety plan, and get connected to resources.

So what kind of safety features can you expect? For starters, we welcome you to share only what feels safe for you. That means you can remain anonymous. Each conversation you have with us will disappear as soon as you close out of the chat box. You can do this by closing out of the browser or by clicking the “Quick Escape” button in the top right of the chat box. That button will bring you to Google.com. Please know if you press “back” on the browser, it will bring you back to the chat box. Our conversation will be gone, but it will still say “Steps to End Domestic Violence” at the top of the page. As an extra safety precaution, you could choose to open a browser incognito mode to chat with us. Browsing in incognito mode won’t show up in your history.

We do want to remind you that if you have any reason to believe your device is being monitored, you might want to consider finding another device to chat with us or consider calling our confidential hotline at 802-658-1996 instead. You can read more about tech safety here, and you can always call us if you’d like to talk through a safety plan around your tech use.

Check back on our website on Monday to start chatting - and in the meantime, the hotline is available 24/7.