Just out of curiousity, what kind of diploma is that?
Shockingly enough, nobody forces you to live there.
This is very true - just as AHunter3 said, you have to constantly be on the move and try to be invisible, and even more so as a kid. Police, and even “helpful strangers”, can all be dangerous, both in your mind, and in reality. Social workers are a different story (more on that later).
The only safe people are other street kids. Older street kids (teenagers and young adults) will parent younger ones, both teach them the ways of survival and protect them. It really becomes a street family, and as the older ones grow up and for the most part, get out, they sometimes take their “kids” with them.
I remember one 11 year old boy, who it was not his first time running away from the group home that was the closest thing he ever had to a home when I met him. When an older girl got married and had a home was fostered by her (with the approval of Social Services) until he became an adult. I hear he’s doing quite well. He went back to school, and now is a social worker. Things like this happened quite frequently - with and without the blessing of social services, younger kids moved in with older kids who made it out of the streets.
Funny enough, quite a few old friends have gone into fields where they work with troubled kids. They’ve picked their careers helping children because of their experiences, and because they don’t want other kids to go through what they did.
I was reading somewhere once, that quite a few street kids want to be Social Workers because when they were young and still in abusive homes, often the social workers were the only people that helped, and the only “normal” role models in their lives. From what I have heard and seen from friends, I think this is very true.
As for police, I am now 37, and far from the street, and yet I still have a distrust of cops. Seen too many crooked ones in my youth. Harassment, belittling, and outright cruelty from police was common place. If you had any troubles, the police sure would not help. Even worse were cops who were predators. For a favor, they might decide not to look up a cute young girl’s name in their system…
When you are in that world, it seems like cops only help people who they think are like them, and for street kids, and I am sure adults on the street, the police are NOT your friends.