Children's Bureau Express

Achieving Safety for Runaway Youth

A four-part series in the National Clearinghouse on Families and Youth (NCFY) newsletter, The Exchange, focuses on improving outcomes for homeless and runaway youth. The issues feature a variety of programs that help achieve and enhance well-being, permanent connections, safety, and self-sufficiency for this vulnerable population.

The latest issue in the series, "Focusing on Outcomes for Youth: Safety," examines ways to increase safety for homeless and runaway youth, providing examples of what some organizations are currently doing to achieve safety for their community's youth. The article highlights practices designed to promote runaway prevention and reaching youth before they become homeless by teaching communication skills and coping mechanisms to at-risk youth.

The Let's Talk Runaway Prevention Curriculum program, developed by the National Runaway Switchboard, is also featured. The program helps to build life skills and provides youth with alternatives to running away from home. The curriculum consists of 14 components, including anger management, body language, and the reality of running away, among others.

Finally, best practices for keeping youth safe after they leave these programs are examined.

Previous issues focused on well-being and permanent connections, and the final part of the series will focus on self-sufficiency. Read "Focusing on Outcomes for Youth: Safety" and the other issues on youth outcomes on the NCFY website:

http://ncfy.acf.hhs.gov/tools/exchange

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