No one has the right to put hands on you without your consent. If you are being hurt, there is never any excuse for it, and you should report it. Whether this is happening at home, at school, or outside of both, it is never right for anyone to be hurting or threatening you. It could be the case that at first you thought this person or people were your friends – maybe a boy or girlfriend – or it is someone within your family who you think a lot of, and this can make it harder to talk about with other people. But the bottom line is they should not be hurting you.

Calling the police is a good option, but if for any reason you can’t talk to them, you need to tell someone you trust. Runaway Helpline can help you with a Three Way Call, so if you feel you can’t make contact with the police directly we can help you with that by being on the line when you talk to them.

We know that bringing this out into the open can be just as scary as the incident itself, and it takes a lot of courage, but you are not alone and we can help you. We won’t overreact, we will listen to you and we help you get into a position where we can help make this stop. The main thing to remember is that there are people who will try be there with you at every step of the way help make you safe.