Basic Center Program for Runaway and Homeless Youth
The Family and Youth Services Bureau's Basic Center Program funds community-based programs that address the immediate needs of runaway and homeless youth and their families.
Basic center projects aim to increase young people's safety, well-being, and self-sufficiency, and to help them build permanent connections with caring adults, with the goal of reuniting them with their families (as appropriate). Youth in crisis receive emergency shelter, counseling, and aftercare services. In addition, projects work to strengthen family relationships, and, in the absence of family reunification, help youth find safe and appropriate alternative living arrangements where they can become independent, self-sufficient, contributing members of society.