I was a runaway at 16yrs. I spent nights sleeping under shrubs while rain soaked me through, shivering more than sleeping, until I figured out how to break into an abandoned house. I went hungry for days until I learned to shoplift groceries. There was nowhere to turn 47 years ago. The last thing I wanted to do was return home. I was becoming a criminal to survive. I had no choice.

I was returned home, however, after a life threatening injury I sustained in a motorcycle accident I had while riding a Honda 50 I had just stolen. I crashed into a car owned by the Superintendent of Schools. My very angry and embarrassed parents showed up at the accident scene and I grabbed up my ruptured abdomen in my hands and ran until I collapsed from blood loss and pain. As I lost consciousness, I crawled under some bushes and tried to hide. I would rather have died than return to that home, and compared to many of the stories I have heard, I really didn’t have it as bad as many of the homeless kids today.

What can we do? Life for a child should never get that difficult. Let me know if you have any viable ideas. Looking Glass is trying, but they don’t have sufficient resources. Neither does anyone else. The kids need medical attention, dental and vision. They need food, clothes, blankets, a dry, warm place to sleep. They need schooling and counseling and above all, safe, trustworthy love and appreciation from responsible adults who can model healthy, compassionate behavior for them.

It might start with four or five kids and a plan for growth, but how would one choose them with so many in need? How could it be funded? What modality might provide an effective method for recruiting participants in a program of scope? A lot of these kids are angry, often with very good reasons! I have no knowledge of the laws that would come into play for harboring runaways and other severely compromised children. I guess that I am thinking in terms of a huge foster care facility, but such a thing could become a greater monster than the nothing at all that is currently serving many of these children’s needs…..

I am just learning about what you are doing. Perhaps I’ll find answers to some of these questions as I peruse your site further.

Thanks for what you are doing.

A.G.