Instagram: a practical tool in case of runaways
We put ourselves out there for young people via this social media and initial feedback is promising.
Given the limited number of phone calls we received from runaways, the importance of social media encouraged us to develop digital support methods to ensure that these young people were not in distress somewhere.
Thanks to Instagram, we were able to get in direct contact with a teenage girl who had run away several months previously.
This medium first allowed us to make sure that the girl was fine and that she was safe. During our discussions on the platform, we also encouraged her to reconnect with her mother in order to calm her concerns, which she agreed to do a few days later.
This special contact also made it possible to organise a meeting between the young runaway and her legal guardian.
Her long runaway ended in October, as they managed together to find a lasting solution for the teenager's place of residence.
These initial results therefore reinforce our belief that, like street educators, we must be in the right place at the right time to fulfil our mission.
We will always be there for young people, no matter how they contact us.
