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Working with children and their carergivers to reduce missing incidents

Runaway children

Helping runaway children & young people

Running away from home, school or care is often a sign that something is seriously wrong. We provide support to children, young people and their caregivers to prevent it from happening again.

Reducing the number of young runaways in London

When children return from being missing, they can be reluctant to speak to anyone official. They worry they might get in trouble for running away, even though the adults around them just want to make sure they are safe and unhurt.

That’s where St Christopher’s Runaways Service steps in. Because we are a neutral party, young people feel more comfortable talking to us and sharing the reasons why they ran away. We conduct an Independent Return Home Interview to find out any harm they suffered whilst absent and identify any on-going risks to their well-being.

Then we provide independent face-to-face support and put an action plan in place. Our thought-out approach helps young people to stay safe, reduce their risk of harm and ensure they never feel desperate enough to run away again.

Why do children run away from home, care or education?

There are lots of reasons why young people run away. Sometimes young people are facing problems with their caregivers, or maybe they are being groomed by gangs to sell drugs or are being sexually exploited. They can be threatened with violence if they do not go along with whatever the perpetrators ask them to do.

Usually young people do not recognise that they are being exploited. They feel scared and want a way out, so they think running away is their only option. The danger is clear to see, but they do not know how to protect themselves.

With our help we can make sure a young person and their family receive the right support to keep them safe.

This project was possible thanks to the support of Oak Foundation.

Our Runaways service is available in these locations

Jonas was scared for his family - so he ran away