OVERVIEW

At all times, runaway kids place themselves in extraordinary danger of contracting AIDS.

FACTS

• AIDS is a potentially disastrous effect of what is going on in the streets—especially in the inner city where sex, drugs, and poverty cross paths that lead into the suburbs.
• More than 20,000 and 40,000 runaways and homeless are at risk of AIDS in New York City. Up to 1.2 million nationwide are at risk.

STREET LIFE

• 300,000 Runaways are classified as "hard-core" homeless street kids.
• Street kids usually have severe emotional problems:
  • 30% Are depressed.
  • 18% Are antisocial.
  • 41% Are depressed and antisocial.
  • 25% Have attempted suicide.
  • 25% Have contemplated suicide.
  • Only one half of the street children can remember a family "as having been happy for more than three days."
• Many believe that these kids will be the next AIDS epidemic.

IMPLICATIONS

1. Outreach and shelter workers need to and do worry about the homeless teenagers and their futures. There are thousands of runaways, but, because they are so untrusting, it is difficult to find and help them. They have been hurt or violated. That is why they are running.
2. Education programs about the dangers of AIDS need to be implemented where these kids will find them and be able to pay attention to them. A safe environment must be created.
3. Obstacles for success are enormous because the kids are elusive, highly stressed, and exhausted.
4. The key to reaching these children is to slowly build relationships. Trust is essential when dealing with runaways. One determined to work with these kids must have patience, as it takes a long time to shatter the kids’ protective barriers.

Sarah Alderman, Holly Gidez, and Anne Montague cCYS