In cities across North America, teenage runaways are struggling to stay alive. Some don't make it to adulthood. Some do, but their lives rarely rise above the despair that brought them to the streets in the first place. A few manage to beat the street, to get their lives back on track. In this disturbing account Marlene Webber draws on extensive interviews with these kids to explore the realities of street life, its attraction, and its consequences. Street kids like to project an image of themselves as free-wheeling rebels who relish life on the wild side. All brashness and bombast, they strut around inner cities panhandling, posturing, and prostituting themselves. Labelled society's bad boys and girls, they often live up to their image. But as sixteen-year-old Eugene tells us, the street forces bravado on homeless adolescents, 'but underneath, a lot of kids are plenty scared.' Eugene is only one of many street kids who talked to Webber in major cities across Canada. She lets her subjects tell their own stories; their voices are sometimes brave, sometimes bitter, often heartbreaking. Webber cuts a comprehensible path through the tangle of forces, including family breakdown and social-service failure, that accelerate the tragedy of Canada's runaways. She suggests measures that might help more of them beat the streets.

This book is about my journey from brokenness to wholeness as a child. I survived physical and sexual abuse. As I got older I found comfort in the bottle. I became a drunk I made the rounds of the hospitals, detox, and the jails. I rode with motorcycle gangs. I hit bottom when I thought about suicide. I have gotten better in 12 step recovery meetings. I allowed God and the 12 steps to change me into a sober, loving, and gentle person. I hope my book will help others.

The Bronx street kid becomes a man I am 55 sober over 11 years- my life continues to change as i grow up. I have allowed GOD to transform my pain and shame into a message. I didnt ask to get raped by a strange man when I was 7. I had no power to stop it. I remained silent and sick for over 40 years. I broke the silence, I am better. Now I share my trials and growth. I hope my book helps others face their pain. The darkness went away when I turned on the light. The universal light is love, GOD is love.

The Anthropology of Learning in Childhood offers a portrait of childhood across time, culture, species, and environment. Anthropological research on learning in childhood has been scarce, but this book will change that. It demonstrates that anthropologists studying childhood can offer a description and theoretically sophisticated account of children's learning and its role in their development, socialization, and enculturation. Further, it shows the particular contribution that children's learning makes to the construction of society and culture as well as the role that culture-acquiring children play in human evolution. Book jacket.

Through concrete detail, current statistics, and qualitative insights from more than 25 years living among and ministering globally to youth mired in tough and dangerous street life, Ron Ruthruff provides a tried model for serving not only troubled youth but others as well. Ruthruff tells stirring, biblically relevant stories of the real young people whom he and his family have loved and served—and what these kids have taught him in return about truly Christ-centered ministry. These stirring stories compel us to reach the least, the last, and the lost, and to appreciate what they can teach us as well. Readers will hear the voice of Job from the hospital bed of a heroin addict, read the story of the demoniac in Mark 5 from the perspective of an “untouchable” in an orphanage in Bombay, India, and discover that the children who sit on our city streets around the world are not just a problem to be solved, but have the potential to become some of our greatest teachers in both their depravity and their dependence on God.

Global knowledge is increasingly essential for all aspects of social work. Today's professionals respond to concerns including permeable borders, the upheavals of war, displaced workers, natural disasters, international adoption, and human trafficking. Everywhere, social workers work with service users and colleagues from diverse cultures and countries. Globally relevant concepts such as human rights, development, and inclusion offer new perspectives to enhance policy and practice and facilitate the international exchange of ideas. This handbook is the first major reference text to provide a solid foundation of knowledge for students and researchers alike. The extensive collection of 73 chapters confirms the integral and necessary nature of international social work knowledge to all areas of practice, policy, and research. Chapters systematically map the key issues, organizations, competencies, training and research needs, and ethical guidelines central to international social work practice today, emphasizing the linkages among social work, development, and human rights practice. In-depth country case studies and policy examples encourage readers to understand how their practice in social work touches on international issues, regardless of whether the work is done at home or abroad. Representing all regions of the world, a wide range of contributors that are leaders in their fields have put together an exhaustive collection that represents the state-of-play of international social work today.

This book illuminates how panhandling acts as the embodiment of the experiences of street life for kids as well as how the streetscape functions as the interface between street kids and the mainstream.

Hi. Welcome to my world of word pictures. They represent selected random thoughts that span a period of almost twenty-five years, from my time in Japan to present day. The next version will include moments from before that time as well. Heres a reading tip for maximum enjoyment: 1. Read the prologue for background. 2. Read the first aha moment. 3. Pause. 4. Read the next one. 5. Pause. 6. Keep repeating the process. This book has been published in a limited printing run for sharing with friends, family, and business colleagues. I hope you get the picture as you read. Some are written for humor. Some are simple observations of life. Others are either events that triggered expressions of faith or simply thoughts that popped up in my head. Thanks in advance for taking the time to read. I would appreciate feedback too.