New York, NY (Top40 Charts) The misnomer in modern society is that runaway/throwaway kids are just spoiled brats that need their bottoms warmed and sent back home but in the vast majority of cases that is just not the case at all.
In my town, Houston, up to 2,100 kids sleep on the streets under park benches, in abandoned buildings, or near garbage dumps every night. That's over 2,000 kids each and every night of the week in just one city. Over 40% of the kids living on our streets for a period of one year will be HIV positive. For kids that remain out there for two years, well, the cold harsh reality is that most likely they will die somewhere around their second year anniversary.
An Example: There is a major street in
Houston and it has an overpass that straddles the road below. Looking up from the street below to where the girders meet the street sits a fourteen year old girl with a new born baby. She's a throwaway. She shares that when her father learned she was pregnant he told her that she would have to abort the child. She said she couldn't do it and told him so and at that point he told her to get out and never come back. She left. Worse yet the young girl said that the baby was his. This kid isn't some spoiled brat, she's a kid in a tough situation. Inexperienced and afraid. In her mind if she had gone to the authorities she was afraid that she would lose her child or perhaps be returned to her father or both. You can rationalize all you want about what she should have done but ask yourself this - how good was your decision making process at fourteen years old? It's simply a Mother's instinct at work.
Another girl left home because her Mother was strung out on crack and forced her into prostitution to get drug money. Dignity gone, no nurturing, her life had spiraled down hill fast. A young male left home because he was repeatedly beaten by his step father and his mother just couldn't pull herself to leave the man. This may seem strange, out of the ordinary, but these are real life examples of just how it goes for a number of kids that runaway.
Many runaway/throwaway kids are LGBT kids. Confused, trying to find themselves, and not feeling as though they fit in they naively run away. Many jump on a bus and go to another city, a place where they don't have anyone and certainly do not know their way around town. To them it's a fresh start, a chance to be themselves.
All of the kids in these examples and there's more examples as well, all of them are easy targets. Pimps wait at bus stations across
America slyly waving cash money at arriving kids using the money as bait for the fresh fish. The kids are so hungry some attempt to outsmart the prey. This happens every day of the week. Beyond the bus stop situation any runaway/throwaway kid that needs money learns rapidly from the other kids that are out there that if the girls hang out close to the adult book stores and the boys hang out in the parks money comes to them. Shocking as this next fact may seem - homeless kids in the United States range from the age of nine up to nineteen. Yes, as young as nine. Even when a kid on the streets gets just a simple common cold they don't even know what to do about it or what about when they get a toothache who can they turn to for help? They're stuck because if they go to a doctor or a dentist perhaps he or she will call the cops and they could end up right back in the same situation they left, to them it's a dilemma.
Kids right where you live are doing what is known as couch surfing from friend's house to friend's house. After a while with no where else to go they are forced to live in the streets. Five years ago I learned of a high school girl, a senior, that was sleeping out in the muggy nights of Houston. She was homeless but had a goal and she was going to do all she could to reach her objective. Her goal as tough as it was - finish high school as her Grandma had wanted her to do before she passed away. Grandma was gone and so was any shelter for this senior. No one at school knew what was going on except for one person, her guidance counselor. Believe it or not this particular girl actually graduated but soon afterward no one knew where she went or what may have happened to her. That's life on the streets for juvenile runaways and throwaways. Worse yet - in many states helping out a homeless kid comes very close to harboring a minor. No wonder they can die so easily - they can fall right through the cracks. No one represents them and few know how to reach out to them the correct way. So how can they be helped?
For one thing there is a 501c3 named Stand Up For Kids and their volunteers have a unique plan that works and God bless them as they have chapters in a number of cities across the U.S. Perhaps your life was tough on the way up and you remember all too well the rigors of staying alive while trying to figure it all out. Perhaps you had an adult destroy your trust in humanity or perhaps you felt ostracized such as can be the case for an LGBT kid. If you have lived through a situation coming up and you made it through then you will want to see these situations eradicated from the face of the earth. If you haven't and this is your first time learning about it trust me it's all too real and common.
Here's some good news - all of us can help. If nothing else - you can go to your local dollar store, buy specific hygienic goods for either a boy or a girl, add socks, and whatever else you feel a kid could use on the street. Insert the goods into a backpack and call your local SUFK chapter. Tell them they can give the backpack to a school guidance counselor who knows someone that is either homeless or in a real bad situation. Also let them know that if they call you back after they give the loaded backpack away that you will bring them another one. (SUFK has a great list of items that should or should not be included in backpacks) So you can help and you can do it inexpensively and not worry about what someone will do with your cash. This is one of the volunteer efforts that Stand Up For Kids performs. In addition to this SUFK has teams of young people that go out into the night giving loaded backpacks directly to runaways/throwaways living on the streets, in the parks. It's a tremendous process to learn about. College kids and young adults alike helping with a really bad situation. (do not attempt to go out on the streets alone, join an organization that is skilled and has a communication system in place) The organization I am sharing today teaches outreach volunteers how to approach these kids, what to say, and also what not to do. Please also note that runaway/throwaway kids are not puppies that you take home - that's a huge mistake. Let a competent organization help them such as Covenant House to name another. Homeless kids do not want hit over the head with religion either. They have heard it all from people with great intentions. On a cold Wednesday or Sunday night a warm church service is a great place to go because all are welcome and seldom questioned.
The fact is that most homeless kids don't know what they want or even what they need for that matter, for Pete's sake they're just kids. You can also note that because they're too young to vote they don't have any community power as a group.
Runaways /Throwaways fall through the cracks of modern society and the perverts know this and so these kids are targets with little chance to go unscathed if they choose to live on the streets. For the most part many of them are average kids that have been traumatized one way or another.
You can do something for very little money and time. I do warn you though - for most of us it's like someone putting heroine in our arm. Helping these kids is that addicting - I kid you not. It's sickening, it's pathetic, and yet it exists for over one million three hundred thousand kids each and every night right here in the U.S. On Friday nights we would have pizza parties at a church in an area known as the Heights. Sixty to Eighty kids would show up. You would be amazed at how many had adopted a dog or a cat that had been roaming the streets. These kids cannot even feed themselves and yet they take in pets. Odd isn't it - they didn't find love at home and then came across a stray that was homeless too and reached out them. Doesn't add up but it's a form of love and loyalty. They're just kids after all, that's what you tell yourself and you just do the best you can for them.
Runaway/Throwaway kids have the blues.
