Life on the street gets tougher for runaways
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- jcwelker
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More troubled kids seek help, but shelters can't keep pace with demand
The young caller's voice is high-pitched and trembling.
Her mother's been drinking, she says. They got into a fistfight, so the girl grabbed her backpack and a cell phone and bolted, with little thought about where a 13-year-old could go on a cold night.
Hiding in an alley off her rural hometown's deserted main street, she calls the only phone number she can think of: 1-800-RUNAWAY.
National Runaway Switchboard data provided exclusively to The Associated Press shows that the overall number of young callers facing crises that jeopardized their safety rose from 13,650 in 2000 to 15,857 last year. About two-thirds of the latter figure were young people who were thinking of running away, had already done so or had been thrown out of the house.
The group's statistics showed that callers are getting younger and that 6,884 crisis callers last year said they had been abused or neglected, compared with 3,860 in 2000. That is a 78 percent increase.
Some callers just want someone to talk to, about problems at home or with friends. Others who have already run away use the hot line to exchange messages with their families — to let them know they're OK, or to arrange a free bus ticket home.
Some are desperate for a place to stay, for safety, for options.
The young caller's voice is high-pitched and trembling.
Her mother's been drinking, she says. They got into a fistfight, so the girl grabbed her backpack and a cell phone and bolted, with little thought about where a 13-year-old could go on a cold night.
Hiding in an alley off her rural hometown's deserted main street, she calls the only phone number she can think of: 1-800-RUNAWAY.
National Runaway Switchboard data provided exclusively to The Associated Press shows that the overall number of young callers facing crises that jeopardized their safety rose from 13,650 in 2000 to 15,857 last year. About two-thirds of the latter figure were young people who were thinking of running away, had already done so or had been thrown out of the house.
The group's statistics showed that callers are getting younger and that 6,884 crisis callers last year said they had been abused or neglected, compared with 3,860 in 2000. That is a 78 percent increase.
Some callers just want someone to talk to, about problems at home or with friends. Others who have already run away use the hot line to exchange messages with their families — to let them know they're OK, or to arrange a free bus ticket home.
Some are desperate for a place to stay, for safety, for options.
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