The Safe At Home
Program
Office of the Vermont Secretary of State
The Safe At Home program is a component of an overall safety plan for victims and their children of domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking who have recently moved or are planning to relocate in the near future to a safe place unknown to their abuser. The program provides participants with a substitute mailing address to be used as their legal residence, work and/or school address. State and local agencies are not told the participant's actual address. The program provides a substitute address so abusers cannot locate victims through the public record system (i.e., voter registration, marriage and birth records, motor vehicle records, etc.) and allows participants to vote in their district as a "blind ballot" absentee voter, of which personal identifying information is never reflected in voter polling lists. First-class mail is sent to a substitute address where it is then forwarded at no cost to the participant's confidential physical location.
Prospective applicants may apply to the program through a domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking service provider, as well as statewide victim advocates.
The Safe At Home program plans to be in effect by April 2001. Interested parties can contact the Safe At Home office (802-828-0586) for more information.