How "My Way Home" Can Help Our Children!!

    Hi, my name is Shellie Martin and I'd like to tell you about a special interest I have in the 'runaway epidemic' that is sweeping our country. I know what these children must be feeling ... because I ran away from home when I was seventeen-years-old.

    I was very fortunate to have been raised in a family with love, kindness and understanding. My parents made sure that I never wanted for anything, within reason. However, I had one fight with my father and when my mother took my father's side, my "seventeen-year-old mind" led me to runaway from home.

    Once I reached my destination, I felt extremely sad and ashamed of myself for leaving such a good home and putting my parents through what I knew must have been torture for them to not know where I was or if I was dead or alive. I moved in with my boyfriend (I was fortunate enough not to have to live on the streets) and it didn't take very long before I started to miss my family very much. Although I wasn't sure how my parents were going to react to my running away, I decided to call them. Both of my parents and grandparents were extremely relieved to hear from me and begged me to come back home. My father apologized to me and my mother and I cried and I really wanted to go home but I just didn't feel like I could after what I had done.

    To make a long story short ... I didn't end up on the streets and have never experienced some of the horrible things that most "runaways" do, but I have experienced the loneliness and desperation that I am sure that these children feel. I never did move back in with my parents, and a few months later I was married to a guy that I had dated my Senior year in High School. At the time, I was convinced that he was all I needed for the rest of my life and all of the plans that I had made for my future (college and pursuing my singing career) were "put on the back burner". My husband and I were very happy for the first several years of our marriage, then it seemed that through the years we just kept drifting further and further apart until it became evident to both of us that we were just not meant to be. After eight years of marriage, I finally filed for a divorce.

    My parents have always been very supportive of the choices that I have made in my life and are still the most important people in my life today. We don't talk about the "runaway incident"...even ten years later it's still much too painful for any of us to discuss. It is something that I will regret doing for the rest of my life. When I think back to what my father and I were fighting about, I now realize that he and my mother were right and if I had a child I would have handled the situation exactly the way that they did. Had I gone back home, I'm sure that my life would have been drastically different. I'm not saying that it would have been better, just different.

    Within the past two years I have moved to Nashville and I am finally pursuing my dream of becoming a Country Music Artist. I have a wonderful friend who believes in my talents more than life itself and supports me in everything that I do.

    I have been fortunate enough to have been given the opportunity to work with David Frizzell (Lefty Frizzell's brother) who won numerous awards with Shelly West in the 1980's for songs such as "You're The Reason God Made Oklahoma" and "Gonna Hire A Wino To Decorate Our Home". David has taken a special interest in my career, he wrote "My Way Home" and gave me the opportunity to create a video of the song to produce a visual effect of "My Way Home" to help increase public awareness of this "runaway epidemic".

    The first time that I heard the song I was deeply moved ... when I was recording the song and video, it was very tough for me to get through it without crying. "My Way Home" is something that has touched my heart; I want to help these children, and their parents as well. Both parents and children need to be aware that there are many non-profit organizations that they can turn to in their community for help.

    I have been doing some research on "runaways" and have found the following statistics through various non-profit organizations:

    Although no one knows the exact number, estimates indicate that more than a million young people run away from home each year in the United States and are living on the streets of America. One out of every seven children will run away sometime between the ages of 10 and 18, and every year about 5,000 runaway and homeless children die from assault, illness, and suicide.

    These children that are running away from home aren't "hoods" or "gang members". The profile of a runaway youth is probably pretty close to the "kid next door". They vary by age, economic status (although most are from middle to upper-middle class homes), education, and race. Most runaway youth are not running to something, but, rather, are running from family problems, physical abuse, sexual abuse, or alcohol and drug abuse. Though they may be aware that running from their problems is only a temporary solution, they are desperately seeking immediate relief.

    Lack of communication, stability and support from families, schools or churches can magnify even the smallest problems. Often, the only option a youth in crisis sees is his or her ability to escape or run away from these problems. Facing problems just doesn't seem realistic.

    Most of these young children can't even imagine what living on the streets has to offer them. Studies show that after three days on the streets most runaway and homeless youth are forced to turn to, and/or are extremely vulnerable to; physical violence, criminal activity, suicide, substance abuse (selling drugs to pay for food and shelter, or taking them to ease the pain), survival sex, and/or increased sexual activity (often resulting in pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases).

    These astounding statistics should be enough to make any human being stop and take notice of this tragic epidemic that is taking place all over the world!!! Our focus mainly consists of prevention. Our hope is that the "My Way Home" project will reach those children before they end up on the street.

    For those children who have already made it to the streets we believe that maybe we can provide them with the information that there are alternatives to the lifestyle they are now living. For the majority of these children returning home is not an option, and most of them aren't aware that there are a number of programs and services in their area that have been designed specifically to assist them.

    We have been in contact with a number of established non-profit "Runaway" programs and services who have expressed their enthusiasm about the "My Way Home" campaign. We believe that our first step should be to get these establishments involved and to attempt to find sponsors for this campaign. We anticipate that we will be able to provide the child who is living on the streets or the child who is considering running away from home with the information that help does exist!!!

    We believe that if the "My Way Home" video was played on the major music channel networks, and at schools, this would be a great way to reach the students who were still at home. We also would like to constitute a "My Way Home" tour, which would consist of doing free concerts in a number of different cities where the established runaway consultants would be available to counsel children. Offer free food, drinks, etc ... We believe that there are a number of different ways, with the right publicity, that we would be able to reach the children who are already on the streets and get them help. Our program would not only focus on the children, but would be beneficial to the parents of children who have run away from home as well.

    These children in America need our help and we hope that the "My Way Home" campaign will become their hope for a brighter future ...