Runaway and Homeless Youth

Effective street outreach is well-planned, thoughtful, and responsive to the diverse needs of young people living in precarious environments. Outreach workers must be well-equipped. This means having critical listening and communication skills and the ability to counsel or intervene when necessary. It also means having a lot of stuff. Here are some items street outreach workers carry with them to...
As an adolescent, Nicole Bush lived on the streets of Denver, Colorado, for a time. She escaped, thanks to the staff and programs of youth service provider Urban Peak. When she became ready for employment, the agency hired her as a peer outreach worker, a youth who accompanies adult outreach staff on their shifts.
When Tina was 14, she was forced to work the streets by an older “boyfriend.” In testimony to a congressional subcommittee, Tina, now a street outreach coordinator for an anti-human-trafficking organization, detailed the beatings and emotional trauma she suffered at the hands of the man who initially won her over with love and attention before humiliating her and forcing her and three...
Every day, approximately 1.3 million runaway, thrownaway, and homeless youth live on the streets of America. Children, both boys and girls, are solicited for sex, on average, within 72 hours of being on the street. Approximately 55 percent of street girls engage in formal prostitution; 75 percent of those work for a pimp. About one in five of these children becomes entangled in nationally...
Harvard Square in Boston, Massachusetts, is a renowned tourist area, known around the world for its shopping, dining, entertainment venues, bookstores, architectural landmarks, and cultural destinations. It is also a place where a large number of runaway and homeless youth sleep every night—some suffering from medical illnesses, others just hungry and alone. A mobile health clinic run by...
The youngest of seven children raised by a single mother, Bobby* had no positive role models. His siblings bounced in and out of juvenile detention facilities on drug charges. None of them finished high school. Bobby followed their lead. Police arrested him on drug charges—for both using and selling. After a short stint in a juvenile detention center, he ended up back on the streets.
Elizabeth*, 16, resented having to look after her younger siblings while her mother worked two jobs and struggled as a single mother with three small children. One day, Elizabeth refused and her mother snapped, and Elizabeth ran away.
Seventy-five percent of Lifeworks’ teen parents graduate from, remain in, or return to school.
Research shows that becoming engaged in the community can, for youth, be a powerful stimulant of self-reliance and prosocial attitudes. FYSB promotes community service learning for youth as an effective approach to linking them to community resources.
Youth take part in a drum cerempony at the Ain Dah Yung Center. The Ain Dah Yung Center—a FYSB grantee that ope
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