Project to help homeless children launches

A initiative aimed at helping homeless children was launched this week. Street to School, a partnership between insurance firm Aviva and charity Railway Children, aims to help 100,000 children at risk on UK streets.

It is designed to raise awareness and support for homeless children in order to return them to everyday life. Railway Children is also calling for an immediate government study to accurately measure the scale of the problem.

It is estimated that in London more than 21,000 children run away from home on one or more occasions before they reach 16.

Aviva and Railway Children have also started a petition which aims to lobby the government to commit resources to protect existing services and develop new ones longer term, so that all children that run away can be kept safe.

Terina Keene, chief executive of Railway Children, said: “It’s a chilling fact that this government has no idea how many children are at risk on our streets right now.

“These children do not want to be found because they are often running away from horrific problems and for them the street is their ‘safest’ option.”