Reflections on Being a Runaway

Recently, I have been working with the staff at Bill Wilson Center to assess why kids walk away from our residential program. We provide housing, counseling, and support services to nearly 400 youth each year in our 20-bed facility.

Over 80% of our kids are reunited with their families. However, 10% of our residents leave without permission at least once during their stay with us. Most of the youth return after a couple of hours. Others stay away a few days before returning. Some, those who never wanted to come to our place, don’t return, but we do follow-up with parents to check if the youth has gone back home.

I spoke with one 14-year-old youth who has walked away from us four times. I asked him what would make him stay, and he said he didn’t know. He said he was used to the freedom on the street and struggled with our structured program, so we modified our rules so he could have more freedom. He did say he likes it at Bill Wilson Center because we always take him back. With our “no fail” philosophy we work with these runaways until they are ready to stay.

An evaluation of our walk-aways showed that many left after school. Not surprising, these kids wanted to see friends after school, not stay at BWC for an afternoon filled with workshops and counseling. Others leave after arguing with other kids in the program.

We are looking at the data and implementing new support services to prevent some of these walk-aways. We are a program that works with chronic runaways, so we know we will always have kids who will run from us. We will be there when they need us, and we will do what it takes to figure out how we make the connection with these kids.