It can't happen, though, because of laws that protect youth from alienation of affection, according to Finn. That's why the kids Finn works with never go to the Lighthouse Youth Crisis Center. Lighthouse notifies parents within 24 hours, and the center's first goal is reunification. Many kids who have left home don't want that. Lariviere, who left home herself at age 11, started the Youth Empowerment Program because street kids have neither a significant support system nor long-range plans or goals.
Service providers do, to a degree.
And the ones that do, it's such a big, hard issue that people just don't understand. First, Lariviere says, not all agencies use the same age when describing youth. HUD considers persons under 26 to be youth. Other agencies use age 24. State law uses 18 or 21.