Welcome to Talk... Don't Walk
Have you or somebody that you know run away? If so, you are not alone, every year more than 100,000 young people under the age of 16 will run away overnight.
Many young people run away due to serious, and often long-standing, problems within the family home and running away is often linked to a number of problems that you and others may be experiencing either at school or in your personal life.
Reduce the risk
One of the greatest fears that parents, carers or guardians can experience comes when they discover that their child is missing or has run away. Parents will experience a range of emotions. The stress of the situation and the different ways in which parents, family, friends and police respond can reach crisis proportions and create further crisis within a family.
Here at Talk..Don't Walk, we want to help to reduce the risk of a young person becoming a run away, or if they have already run away, how we can stop them from repeat running. We work with the young run away, their family and any one else involved such as School or even Social Services to address the reasons why the young person ran away in the first place.
What factors make a young person run away?
- To avoid an emotional experience or consequence that they are expecting in some future encounter or situation.
- To escape a recurrent or ongoing unpleasant, painful or difficult experience in their life.
- To avoid the loss of activities, relationships or friendships that are considered important or worthwhile.
- To be with other young people who are supportive, encouraging and active (this support can often appear positive to them but may have very negative consequences in the long run).
- To be with others or go to places that are a distraction away from other problems in their life.
- To change or stop what they are supposed to or feel they have to do.
