Teens in Trouble: Runaways
Links to sites providing information helpful in understanding, preventing, and coping with runaway behavior.
Major Sites
National Runaway Switchboard - Volunteer organization which provides confidential help to runaways and their families, as well as information and educational services.
National Center for Missing and Exploited Kids - This non-profit U.S. agency employs state-of-the-art technology to locate missing children and teenagers.
Team Hope provides one-on-one support to parents of missing children through a volunteer network of parents who have survived the experience. The website also offers a wealth of information on abduction, runaways, Internet enticement, etc.
The Open Directory: Family: Runaways
Runaway Lives - Personal stories about the runaway experience and discussion by runaways and their families.
Focus Adolescent Services - Community-based outreach program in Florida that offers information resources in addition to services for runaways and families.
Missing Children Sites
Cyberpage's Missing Children Page - Lists children missing and contact information.
Information & Statistics
When Your Child Is Missing: A Family Survival Guide - Informative and sensitive site for parents written (with assistance from law enforcement and youth service professionals) by parents who have experienced the trauma of a missing child.
Covenant House: For Parents: Child Missing? - Steps to take if your child is discovered missing.
Helping Runaway and Homeless Youth Grow up Safe and Secure - Remarks by U.S Secretary of Health and Human Services, Donna Shalala at the National Network for Youth Annual Conference, Washington, D.C., February 8, 1999
The Iowa Legislative Report - Details Iowa's legislation which encourages counties to establish runaway assessment and treatment programs.
Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics - Runaways - U.S. statistics from the Department of Justice.
Health Needs of Homeless and Runaway Youth: A Position Paper of the Society for Adolescent Medicine - from the Journal of Adolescent Health: 1992;13:717-726.
Teen Runaways, PBS Newshour transcript, May 14, 1996 - Rod Minott of KCTS-Seattle reports on how Washington State deals with teenage runaways.
Interpol's Categories of Missing Children (Runaways in Canada)
Interpol's Missing Children Statistics, Other Interpol Countries
Hotlines
National Runaway Switchboard - phone 1-800-621-4003
Child Find of America, Inc. (New York)-phone 1-800-a-way-out
National Missing Children's Locate Center (Oregon)-phone 1-800-999-7846
For runaway hotlines in specific areas of the U.S., check the "Human Services" section of the local phone directory.
Travel & Communication Services
"Home Free" Bus Service - Greyhound Lines, in conjunction with the National Runaway Switchboard, will provide free one way transportation for runaway children returning home through its "Home Free" program.
Contact-A-Runaway - fee-based message service for runaways and parents.
Prevention & Intervention
Understanding and Preventing Teenage Runaways - advice a clinical psychologist.
The
Runaway Game - "Choose-your-own-adventure" style hypertext
novel with 20 different endings designed to help teenagers understand
the realities of life as a runaway. At the end of each chapter, readers
make choices which lead to different scenarios.
Operation
Go Home- Canadian organization dedicated to reuniting runaways with
their families or matching them with agencies which can provide help.
Educational materials are also available.
Youth Crisis Center of Jacksonville, Florida - one community's response to the problem of runaways includes the SAFE PLACE program begun in 1986.
Child Find Alberta - "... providing the citizens of Alberta with programs for prevention, intervention, location and recovery, and postvention/follow up."
The Lost Child: Emergency Broadcast System Recovery Network
