River House, Inc. formerly known as River House Shelter & Domestic Crisis Services Office Phone: 989-348-3169 24 Hour Crisis Phone: 888-554-3169

Safety Practices

Safety Tips
How to delete e-mail messages
How to delete Web page History and Cache

Safety Tips

• Make certain that exterior doors are locked at all times. Teach your children the importance of keeping doors locked.
• Never open an exterior door without first making certain who is outside.
• If your unit has a security alarm, turn it on each night before going to bed and each time you leave.
• Teach your children where panic buttons are located and help them understand the importance of pushing these buttons only when there is danger.
• If you do not have a telephone in your home, request that a River House, Inc. advocate provides you with a 911 pre-programmed cellular telephone, and make sure the cellular phone is always charged.
• Always leave exterior lights on when you do not expect to return home during day light hours.
• Always visually inspect the area around your home prior to getting out of your car.
• If someone gives you a ride home, ask him or her to watch and make sure you get safely inside before they drive away.
• Learn the location of local and state police department buildings.
• If you see your abusers(s) lurking around your home and you are in your car drive to the nearest police department.
• If your abuser(s) comes to your home and tries to enter do not open the door. Call 911 and request police assistance.
• Always make sure a dependable person knows where you are and when you expect to return.
• If you do not have a Personal Protection Order and you feel you are at risk of further injury by your abuser(s) ask a River House, Inc. advocate to assist you in obtaining a Personal Protection Order.
• Report harassing telephone calls to the telephone company, police, and a River House, Inc. advocate.
• Create firm boundaries with your children. Be very clear where and with whom they are allowed to go.
• Make sure your children's school(s) has information regarding who can or cannot pick up your children.
• If you see someone trying to force their way into your neighbor's unit/home, call the police.
• Make sure River House, Inc. staff have an accurate description of your abuser(s).

How to delete e-mail messages

Although this can vary depending on the e-mail program or service you are using, the following precautions can be taken if you don't want someone else to see the messages you receive or send.

Received e-mail is usually received into a folder called the "Inbox". When a message is deleted from the Inbox, it is usually NOT deleted from your computer. Instead the message is copied to a folder called "Deleted Items".

Copies of sent e-mail messages are typically stored in a folder called "Sent Items", after an e-mail message is sent. Sometimes e-mail messages are placed in a folder called "Outbox" before it is actually sent. Messages in the Outbox are typically copied to the Sent Items folder after the programs is told to "Send/Receive".

Since an e-mail message can appear in multiple folders, each of these folders must be examined and unwanted messages deleted.

A message can typically be deleted in several ways:

• Highlight the message by clicking the message name only once and press the Delete key on your keyboard.
• Highlight the message by clicking the message name only once and press the Delete button that may appear near the top of the window.
• Highlight the message by clicking the message name only once, then click the Edit menu choice and click the Delete option.
• Right click the message and left click Delete from the list presented.
• With some e-mail programs, all items in the Deleted Items folder can be deleted by clicking Edit in the e-mail program menu then clicking 'Empty Deleted Items Folder'.

There are many flavors of e-mail programs and services and they don't all label folders the same way or automatically copy messages from folder to folder in the same way. For example, the Hotmail and Yahoo e-mail services don't handle e-mail in exactly the same way nor do the various versions of Outlook, Outlook Express nor Netscape e-mail programs that you may use on your PC or Macintosh. Use these tips as a guideline, but realize that specific procedures may vary considerably from one computer to the next.

How to delete Web page History and Cache (a.k.a. Location Bar) records from your computer

A Web browser (the program you use to view Web pages) copies files to your computer and logs information about pages you've viewed. These files and logs will often remain on your hard drive for a considerable period of time after you've viewed the Web page, closed the Web browser and even turned off your computer. History of Web pages viewed can be accessible for many months. The Cache log, which keeps track of Web page addresses you've entered in the Location Bar, will also hang around indefinitely if not deleted.

Fortunately Web browsers give you the option to delete both History and Cache references.

As with e-mail deletions, the procedure for deleting Web browser history and cache entries differ with different versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer (MSIE) and with different versions of Netscape.

The process for deleting History and Cache typically starts with either the Edit or Tools options in the Web browser. Next look for either a Preferences or Options choice and from there choices that will allow you to "Clear History", "Delete Files", "Delete Cache", and/or "Clear Location Bar". Click these "Clear" or "Delete" choices.

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