A Place To Run To

Please don't hate me," she cried as she ran from the room. All she had done was accidentally spill a glass of water on the old, brown carpeting in the office. It was the spontaneous cry of a small, 14-year-old girl going through a crisis. She was a runaway.

Like hundreds of other kids each year, she had run to Place Runaway House. Located at 402 Marlborough St. in Boston, Place House cares for more runaways than any other residential shelter in New England. For teenagers (both boys and girls, ages 13-17) who are being abused, who are having difficulties at home or school or who have some other problem that temporarily overwhelms them, Place is a refuge where they can overcome crises and begin to work out their problems.

Half the kids who come to Place walk in off the street. Unlike all other shelters in the area, Place has an open referral policy--kids do not have to be referred or funded by another social agency or come from a certain geographical region. The house is always open with staff on duty, 24 hours a day.

Once a runaway decides to enter the program at Place, he or she is allowed to stay up to two weeks (the limit is necessary because of the large numbers of runaways that pass through the house). Place offers a program of crisis intervention where children learn to confront their problems. The house has 72 hours to inform parents of their child's whereabouts, but, if it is safe to do so, a counselor (or preferably the runaway himself) calls the parents soon after the child's entry to explain that the child is off the streets and has a place to stay.

The programs requires that the kids follow house rules and be in the house at certain hours for activities and counseling. It is an open program. The child may leave at any time.

The counseling at Place is client-centered. Miguel Gil, a house staff member, says that the first thing he asks a client is what do you want to use me for?" It is a form of outreach to the child which tries to get him actively involved in solving his own problems. In a non-authoritarian environment, the runaway can hear an explanation of the options open to him. The facilities of the house can then be used as a sort of social service trouble-shooter to get the child the services he may need, such as a forster home, medical care or a job.

Place Runaway House evolved out of the social troubles of the 1960s. At the time, young people were not drifting just to San Francisco to become flower children. They flowed into many major cities. And not all were interested in politics and drugs but were running away from serious problems and needed help. Place House was founded in 1967, making it the second oldest shelter for runaways in the country.

In succeeding years the organizers of the house developed additional programs such as a hot line (which helped to counsel callers on many of the underground issues of the day: drugs pregnancy, VD, the draft), a drug education program, a legal aid group, and programs to support alternative life-styles. By 1974 there were 70 full-time staff members and 200 volunteers involved in seven different programs.

Since then, some of the projects have folded due to lack of funding or insufficient organization. But the house itself has survived and is now an independent corporation.

One of the most significant aspects of the house is its style of organization. First, it is an alternative agency with a different philosophy from many traditional institutions. Instead of having fixed procedures set up to deal with particular categories of problems, Place, with its non-restricted access, 24-hour availability, convenient location and client-centered counseling, is openly structured to respond to the needs of runaways. In a way, Place acts like an interface between the child and the more institutionalized network of social agencies. After having having had a few days to overcome crises, many kids are able to work out their problems well enough so that they do not need to get caught up in the larger social agency network.

The way counselors at Place relate to the children mirrors the way the counselors relate to each other. Place House has a collective organization. Lillian Jackson, the director of the house, says that the staff has found that a non-hierarchical system works best to facilitate the highly subjective work that goes on in the house.

The fact that everyone receives equal pay, participates in making collective decisions and takes on equal responsibilities not only helps motivate staff members but also helps bring the staff closer together so that they can better support each other in their often emotionally-exhausting jobs as counselors.

Jackson says that Place House may be the only runaway shelter in the country with this kind of collective organization. We're fighters," she says. Place has fought to remain independent from the control of state social welfare systems which often have regulations requiring agencies to have an organizational hierarchy.

The staff members of Place are also fighters for other issues. They waged a long battle to be able to keep the names of their clients confidential and out of the records of the state agencies who provide funding. And they helped fight for legislation to change the status of a runaway from a criminal to a child in need of service" who needs help instead of time in court. Presently, the Place staff is organizing campaigns to heighten public awareness of child abuse.

It has not been easy for Place to continually work around the system that provides its funding. The system looked down on us for a long time," Jackson says. But after five or six years of watching more runaways run to Place than to any other shelter, the funders are changing their minds and tend to let Place organize the way it wants.

Place House now has the reputation for being the runaway shelter in New England. It took a long time," Jackson says. We had to break a lot of rules."