Do 1 Thing This Valentine’s Day

This Valentine’s Day, Standup For Kids, an organization aimed at helping homeless and street kids, is asking everyone to help put a face on youth homelessness. Standup for Kids has partnered with Do 1 Thing, an organization comprised of ward-winning photographers, journalists, editors, designers, and writers who have come to together to shine a light into the many dark places that affect the most vulnerable children and teens.

When I lived in NYC, I volunteered with a non-residential homeless center for teens, and I remembering thinking it was outrageous that a city full of so much wealth and prosperity had more than 100,000 teens living on the streets, many of whom were prostituting themselves to the wealthy and prosperous just to survive. Think it’s not a big problem? Here are some recent stats:

• 1.3 million runaway and homeless youth live on the streets of the U.S. today
• parental substance abuse is the largest predictor of runaway behavior in youth
• 41% of runaway youth had been abandoned by caregivers for at least 24 hours, and 43% had been beaten by their caretaker
• more than 25% of youth runaways have had caregivers request sexual activity

Though the problem is daunting, there are things you can do to make a difference. Standup for Kids and Do 1 Thing have some suggestions to get you started:

• Support a local Standup for Kids Program by conducting a food or clothing drive outside a mall, movie theatre, church or school.
• As you and your friends upgrade, collect old cell phones that can be used by homeless youth (email when you’re ready to send your phones for more info).
• Spread the word and create awareness about the plight of homeless youth with an email campaign. Click here to get started.