| PERSPECTIVE |
[November 27, 2002] -
It isn’t a frequent topic of conversation, but runaways and homeless teens do live in Nebraska, mostly on the streets of Lincoln and Omaha. UNL researchers want to know why they end up there, and how to help these teens get back on track. Their study focuses on Midwestern cities, following a group of homeless kids for three years, tracking how their circumstances change for better or worse. “Statewide’s” Brad Penner reports. |
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Watch the Perspective segment:RealPlayer | QuickTime
Follow Erin, Kim and other Youth Emergency Services outreach workers as they spend an evening on the streets with troubled kids:RealPlayer | QuickTime |
 Midwest Longitudinal Study of Homeless Adolescents - VIEW THE STUDY | ||
[Brad Penner]
They come from different places, for different reasons. They share a need to connect with someone, somehow. They are, for the most part, teenagers. Some call them "Market Kids".
[Shadow]
I'm Shadow, also known as Chameleon or Michael. This here is David. And here we have _____ who is doing a bracelet for a friend of ours. We have… Heather here. And this is my good friend, Romeo. Wave hi, Romeo.
[Chris, Field Researcher]
Their home life usually isn't the best. And so they're kind of… they're coming here to escape. It looks safer… it's safer than maybe at home and it's a place to make some friends.
[Brad Penner]
A couple of years ago Chris came to Omaha's Old Market with a group of street outreach workers. She came to get help with a research project.
[Chris]
I just asked them if they were interested in being interviewed for the survey. And of course with a little extra cash, that was a good incentive. So that's kinda how we got started.
[Brad Penner]
Chris interviews the kids in her group every three months. Her work is part of a University of Nebraska study into the lives of street kids in seven Midwestern cities: Omaha, Lincoln, Wichita, St. Louis, Kansas City, Des Moines, Iowa City and Cedar Rapids. The study tracks participants for three years.
[Prof. Les Whitbeck, UNL Sociologist]
And what we're finding is really high rates of victimization and psychological distress and behavioral and emotional problems among these kids. The same rates are higher than some of the magnet cities.
[Brad Penner]
Les Whitbeck literally wrote the book about Midwestern teen runaways. He co-authored "Nowhere to Grow" after a short-term study of runaways. That led to the current three-year tracking study.
[Prof. Les Whitbeck]
We don't know about the kids who remain marginal all their lives. We just don't have any idea what the developmental trajectories of these kids are. So what we try to do is put together a research designed so we can begin to answer some of those questions in terms of what happens to them.
[Lisa]
He's almost learned to walk but if you look at him, he'll sit down. Just… he doesn't want you to see that he's almost figured it out.
[Brad Penner]
You can't guess Lisa's story by watching her play with her son. Lisa is a participant in the Homeless Teen Study. She met Chris when the study began more than two years ago.
[Lisa]
Before I met Chris I was kinda… it was like I was jumping kinda from place to place basically. Trying to… you know… find a friend to stay with here, a friend to stay with there. Somebody that would let me stay for a couple weeks.
[Brad Penner]
Lisa ran away because she wanted freedom from her mother's rules.
[Lisa]
At first I was happy 'cause I didn't really have any rules. Wherever I stayed I did what I wanted when I wanted. I didn't have to be home at a certain time, I didn't have to check in, I just came and went as I pleased. After awhile it got to the point where you didn't have much money so you went like a day without eating because you couldn't afford to stop and get anything.
[Brad Penner]
Lisa lived the street life and found a lot of kids were there because of abuse.
[Lisa]
For the most part it's people that are really in bad situations that they just can't handle it any more so they take it upon themselves to make it better.
[Prof. Les Whitbeck]
Where in the past you used to see kids that would runaway for adventure and maybe be a hobo or be a cowboy or even in the sixties kind of float down to Haite Ashebury or something like that. Those aren't the kids you're seeing today. The kids you're seeing today are running away from something.
[Brad Penner]
Forty-three percent of the 455 adolescents in the study say they were beaten with fists at home. More than 70 percent report being slapped on the head or face. Ten percent of the boys and around a third of the girls say they were forced to something sexual.
[Erin, Youth Emergency Services]
A lot of physical and sexual abuse which is why the kids have left their families. Whether it's been physical or sexual abuse from a grandparent or a parent or a brother or a sister, there's been a lot of that. Specifically with some of the kids I can think of that are behind me quite a bit.
That was the most wonderful note. I started bawling.
[Brad Penner]
Erin is a street outreach worker for Youth Emergency Services in Omaha. She sees the Market Kids' lifestyle firsthand.
[Erin]
There's a lot of substance use and abuse. In the last nine months we've noticed a lot of meth use.
[Brad Penner]
In the study's first year, nearly 70 percent of participants reported using alcohol or marijuana. Twenty-two percent used hallucinogens, 20 percent took meth, and 16 percent said they used cocaine.
Chris met most of the kids in her study when she worked with the outreach team in the Old Market.
[Chris]
I rarely see very many of my kids, you know, hanging out in the Market. It seems like there's a new group of kids every year. There's some of the old but there's a new group every year of kids that kinda come in and… make this kinda their home away from home.
[Brad Penner]
These days Lisa goes to the playground instead of the Old Market. She returned to high school to get her diploma, she has an apartment, and a job with hopes of a promotion.
[Chris]
She just almost glows now. She's very excited about her future. She's excited about her son and she… she's proud of herself. I can tell it.
[Brad Penner]
Interestingly, the process of being interviewed for the study on runaways helped Lisa turn her life around.
[Lisa]
Yeah, it made me actually sit down and think about everything that I'd done and what I'd been through. And it's just like, man… I can't believe that. It makes you really stop and realize what you've been doing and it just makes the light go on. Like, Hello, duh. Something needs to change.
[Chris]
If you can imagine sitting down with you know pretty much a total stranger and asking them all sorts of personal questions about their drug use, their sexual history, their family, if they've ever been abused. You kind of… you build a connection.
[Lisa]
She at least understands what I'm going through and I can ask for opinions, advice. You know, that kind of thing.
[Brad Penner]
And researchers are helping other kids, in other cities.
[Prof. Les Whitbeck]
We have a wonderful group of interviewers. A lot of them have spent time on the streets themselves. Some have been to youth workers all their lives. They're really good with these kids. They take a lot of risks, the hours are horrible, the pay is low. They do it because they really care about these young people.
[Brad Penner]
Whitbeck says the kids in the study group are the lucky ones, because they have someone who cares for them. He hopes the study leads to new ways to help more kids.
[Prof. Les Whitbeck]
You can't take a child like this who's been out making their own decisions, moving around when they wanted to, slap them back in a foster home and tell them they have to be in at nine o'clock and do their homework. What'll happen is that kid will blow out of that foster home and then it'll have another failure on their hands.
[Brad Penner]
At Youth Emergency Services they take a no-pressure approach to helping homeless teens. Once a week street kids come to Youth Emergency Services for a hot meal and some type of group activity.
[Erin]
Basically, again what we want you guys to do is just pretty much draw what homelessness means to you.
[Brad Penner]
It's a place they can hang out, and get help if they want it.
[Erin]
But we just kinda more wait until they come to us and say, okay you know what? Now I'm ready, I'm ready to get into housing, I'm ready to go to drug treatment, I'm ready to get my GED. And so we don't push it, we just wait for them to come to us and then we're like, all right, let's sit down, let's problem solve, let's make a plan and let's do it.
[Brad Penner]
Trudy says life on the streets made her happy. She remembers one special place.
[Trudy]
The stoop that's down in the Old Market and me, him and the guy in the black hair and his girlfriend used to sit there every day last summer, whether we had places to stay or not, and ____ money every day enough to get drunk every day.
[Brad Penner]
She slept on the stoop, or in the park.
[Trudy]
The stoop was a really cool place. Like you can look at it now and walk by it and just… memories. Like we did a lot of crap there.
[Brad Penner]
Trudy is also part of Chris's study group. But she doesn't seem to be ready to leave the streets even though she moved back home.
[Trudy]
I'm going to high school this year again, and sticking it out for nine more months. And then I'm gone; I'm leaving town.
[Brad Penner]
They don't all want help but Chris sees potential in a lot of street kids.
[Chris]
I work with so many kids that say they want to do that, or they want to get their GED but there's always something hindering them. And it's usually because they don't have a permanent place to stay or the money or you know, the support from their parents.
[Brad Penner]
Lisa got the support she needed, when she needed it.
Any thought of going back to the street?
[Lisa]
No. I'm done with that. Nope. I've got a son now I've gotta think of him. I can't just think about me.
[Brad Penner]
Outreach workers like Kim help as many as they can.
[Kim]
They take you just like that if you're insulin dependent.
[Girl]
Well, if you can do it like a number for that or something.
[Kim]
Can I give you my… number and you can call me. And then I can get the number and then I can give you the number like over the phone when I get it.
[Brad Penner]
By learning more Les Whitbeck hopes more will get help.
[Prof. Les Whitbeck]
We've become a country that has accepted homeless people on our streets. They've become part of the urban landscape. And I would hate to see us become a country that would accept a proportion of our children on the streets. This isn't a Third World nation. It seems like we should be able to take care of these kids.
[Kim]
There you go, Sweety. You're insulin dependent, right? Okay, I got it. I'm on it, okay?
[Girl]
Thank you so much.
[Kim]
No problem, see you later. Bye.
[Brad Penner]
Reporting for STATEWIDE, I'm Brad Penner.