"No one was looking for him or the other dozen children who congregated on the market square. Most of them had absconded from care, some were dodging school. A few, like Craig's mate Mikey, just didn't bother going home. The youngest runaway, Mark, claimed he'd been missing from foster care for months and had spent his 12th birthday on the run."
"Our series set out to follow some, like Craig, who survived on the streets, existing outside the system. We documented his life as he stumbled from one precarious situation to the next. On the face of it, he seemed unfazed by the chaos around him. He was often quiet, watching as street dramas played out in front of him. It was difficult to read what he was thinking and just how lost he felt."
A group of children ran away and gathered in Nottingham city centre, living openly on the streets and avoiding official attention. Thirteen-year-old Craig, tall and blond, organized bedding and learned survival tips from experienced rough sleepers. The runaways included children who had absconded from care, skipped school, and a twelve-year-old who celebrated a birthday while on the run. The group formed close bonds, sleeping together in alleys and sharing scarce resources. Their daily lives involved moving between precarious situations and occasional returns to familiar estates. The phenomenon occurred amid a wider national crisis of child runaways in 1998.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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