FOR ALMOST EVERY person, the teen years can be a difficult time. School, social and extracurricular activities, jobs, and responsibilities in the home can make the average adolescent's life hectic and overwhelming. For teen runaways, however, these problems seem insignificant. Rather than worrying about keeping up their grades in school or doing their chores at home, teens on the run must concern themselves daily with finding food and shelter. Rather than holding down an after-school job, they must panhandle or steal to make money in order to eat, and if these methods do not succeed, they often turn to drug dealing or prostitution.

Every day, teen runaways are concerned for their physical safety and must develop methods to protect themselves from violent assaults such as rape. When they do find themselves wounded or sick, their health care options are often extremely limited. Since life on the streets involves...