Thursday, October 18, 2007

Promise House launches new teen runaway awareness campaign

By Pegasus News wire

DALLAS — Promise House, a 23-year-old non-profit Dallas agency serving runaway, homeless and at-risk teens, launches its Who’s Sofa Surfing Tonight Awareness Campaign on Nov. 2 in coordination with National Runaway Prevention Month.

Sofa surfing refers to the practice of moving from sofa to sofa in friends’ homes after a teen has either runaway or been kicked out of their own home. “Sofa surfing is a slang term that has been used in the youth runaway industry for many years,” said Dr. Harriet Boorhem, Executive Director of Promise House. “We wanted to take this term and this practice and use it to shed light on the severity of the teen runaway problem in Dallas.”

Photo not provided by Promise House, circus clowns

A spokesclown for circuses has come out against the anti-runaway campaign

Every year, more than 6,000 teens run away from home in Dallas. On any given night more than 1,000 Dallas teens are either on the streets or sofa surfing from home to home. “Because there is not a centralized gathering place for runaway teens in Dallas, as there are in other large metropolitan communities, these teens in crisis are often difficult to find,” Boorhem said. “The goal of the campaign is to raise awareness and shine a light on this invisible homeless population.”

More than 1.5 million teenagers runaway in the United States every year. To highlight the gravity of the problem, the U.S. Congress, in conjunction with the National Runaway Switchboard and the National Network for Youth, declared November as National Runaway Prevention Month. “Promise House is taking the lead in Dallas to be the voice of the teenage runaway population by informing the public what these kids are facing on a daily basis,” Boorhem said.

Promise House hopes to accomplish this task with a multimedia awareness platform throughout the month of November. More importantly, Promise House shows an extended commitment not only through its nine programs for at-risk youth and teens, but also with its recent appointment as Dallas County coordinator for National Safe Place where it celebrated early success in signing all 55 Dallas Fire Department stations as Safe Places.

The kickoff of the awareness campaign begins with a 10:00 a.m. press conference at City Hall on Nov. 2 where Mayor Tom Leppert, Mayor Pro Tem Dr. Elba Garcia and Dallas Assistant Fire Chief Thomas Tanksley will be present.

Source: Promise House

See more stories in:

• Child Endangerment
• Poverty > Homeless