(I do miss Alex, our Willamette University intern, who graciously blogged for us - among many other things - during her time at HOME. Best of luck to her as she graduates and moves on in her life. I know Alex'll do wonderfully well wherever she finds herself. I'll pick my blogging pen back up and try to maintain Alex's enthusiasm and commitment.)
“Sara”, a chronically homeless girl aged 15 years who occasionally came to HOME, began associating with a group of homeless young adult males. After a few weeks, Sara hitched a ride to California with the young men. With Sara’s history of abuse, drug use, depression, and unsafe sexuality, we were extremely concerned about her safety and kept in close contact with Sara’s family as well as the Salem Police Department. Sara was soon located in Los Angeles walking the streets alone after being abandoned by her male companions. A local homeless woman found our girl and took her to a youth shelter.
The family contacted us frantically asking what could be done to get their daughter back safely to Oregon. Our RHY team worked with Sara’s family, the Los Angeles youth shelter and the National Runaway Switchboard to obtain a bus pass for Sarah to return back home where she was reunited with her family. While on the run and traveling to California, Sara was emotionally traumatized by the things she experienced and witnessed.
Just returning home is never the end of the story. We continue to work with both mom and Sara in obtaining local support and services to address this trauma as well as the underlying factors that triggered her run responses in the first place.
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