STATISTICS AND INFORMATION ON RUNAWAYS

1.3 million runaway and homeless youth live on the streets of America. Most of these kids (85%) fall between the ages of 14 and 17, and approximately 75% are female. Nearly 500,000 children and teens become runaways each year, with one out of seven children running away between the ages of 10 and 18. While a few return home quickly, many others never do. Sources cite that the average time a runaway is on the streets is 143 days.

Most runaways living on the street find difficulty earning money to survive. Though they begin by panhandling for change, they usually turn to illegal activities such as prostitution, pornography, drugs, and stealing to survive. Every year approximately 5,000 runaway and homeless youth die from assault, illness and suicide.

Quick intervention is a key, however, the police department is not able to do much more than file a missing person report. Sadly, America's cities, government and politicians are doing almost nothing to address this epidemic.

Over 40% of all youths cited family dynamics as the reason they ran away, with domestic violence in the home being the #1 cause of runaways. Poverty, divorce trauma, physical and sexual abuse, gender identity or sexual orientation conflict, and alcohol and drug abuse problems are other factors contributing to young people fleeing their homes.

National Children's Coalition and Streetcats Foundation created the website center "Street Kids and Runaway Youth." The site provides links on how to help runaways, where to get help if you are a runaway, groups that work with street kids all over the world, information and statistics on runaways and what to do if your child or friend is a runaway. (http://www.child.net/runaway.htm)

Licensed investigative agency: Runaway Locate & Retrieval Service (888) 457-1168

National Runaway Switchboard (800) -621-4000

Links: Covenant House (U.S. Centers for Street Kids), Operation Go Home (Canadian)