According to research and statistics, "one in seven kids between the ages of 10 and 18 will run away at some point. And there are 1 million to 3 million runaway and homeless kids living on the streets in the United States". Many youths run away or become homeless for a variety of reason.
Some got involved with the wrong crowd, some ran away to escape abusive families, and some simply believed they were old enough to be on their own. Whatever the reason may be, a huge number of our youths are on the streets, night after night, falling prey to even worse groups, gangs, substance abuse, mental illness, and sexual exploits. Many do not know where or how to ask for help. Many are shuffled from one emergency shelter to another with no provisions for returning to normal society. It's a very sad, and fairly understated phenomenon.
It is not enough for us to build temporary shelters for them. We need to help them get back on their feet.
For this purpose I think it's great that the federal government in correspondence with state, and local authorities, as well as community leaders are providing transitional programs that assist runaway and homeless youths with more than just a temporary shelter. These new programs provide runaway youths and teens with outreach education
, treatment and counseling, crisis interventions, follow-up support, and other necessities and reference points along side shelters to help them off the streets.
However, it seems that we should also spend some money and resources on determining and curbing the problems of runaway youths at their starting point. More services should be provided to resolve issues of family abuse, substance abuse, sexual exploitations, and other issues that cause kids to run away and become homeless in the first place.
But what other methods of solution and prevention can the government implement to prevent youths from running away? The government can't monitor every family to make sure abuse are not being administered and they can't monitor teenager's every waking moment to make sure they're not running with the wrong crowd. However, neither can family members. So what can we do to take away the root problems that makes youths run away?
