“Most homeless kids are on the streets because they have been forced by circumstances
that cause them to think that they are safer there than in any home they once knew.”
Jewel

Teenagers today are one of the fastest growing populations of people on the street. In the Kansas City area, the stats are simply staggering:

• 746 homeless students in Johnson County schools in 2010, with the number expected to reach more than 1,000 (Source: United Community Services of Johnson County)
• More than 1,000 homeless students identified in the Kansas City, Kansas School District (Source: Hillcrest Transitional Housing)

Sometimes kids end up on the streets because the family cannot afford to keep them, or because of abuse they are forced to experience in the home.

KidsTLC Street Outreach Services is there to help.

With a 24 hour hotline and a team that covers the streets, the parks, the libraries and coffee houses, KidsTLC is able to reach kids, provide basic necessities of life, help them get jobs, housing and medical attention, and when appropriate, we help troubled teens on the streets return home.

Here is Tajai’s story.

For a teenage girl, the pull of a boyfriend can be a powerful force.

A young lady named Tajai knows this all too well.

At 17, she followed the guy she thought she loved from Kansas City to Syracuse, New York.

That is where he left her.  Pregnant.  Alone. No money to get back home.

“It was very scary,” Tajai remembers.  “Months by myself.  All I could do was call my mom to see how she was doing.”

Tajai’s family knew about KidsTLC because they had used our services in the past.

When all else failed, her mom called KidsTLC.  Street Outreach Coordinator Jason Stary got to work, arranging a bus ticket for Tajai to return home safely.

“I don’t know what I would have done without TLC,” Tajai said.

But the SOS team didn’t stop there.  Street outreach workers Josh Henges and Colleen Samaroo  helped Tajai get back into school; they now take her to doctor appointments and they are guiding Tajai in her efforts to find housing, a job and continuing education.

Tajai’s baby boy is due around Thanksgiving in 2011.  She graduates from high school in December with the tools she needs to make a good life for herself and her son.

Tajai’s experience taught her some hard lessons when it comes to the choices she makes.

But she says that KidsTLC and the SOS team taught her about the power of people who care.

“A lot of people out there don’t know kindness,” she said.  “Simple things like tooth brushes, toothpaste and your own pair of shoes make a big difference.”

“Everything they do matters,” Tajai said.  “Everything counts.”