About Us
National Runaway Safeline (NRS) works to keep America’s runaway, homeless and at-risk youth safe and off of the streets and is the home to the federally-designated National Communication System (NCS) in the United States for youth ages 12 to 21 who are in crisis, contemplating running away, or have run away, and/or are experiencing homelessness.
Mission
Vision
NRS is the “go to” resource for America’s runaway, homeless and at-risk youth, and their families, providing solution-focused support.
What We Do
1-800-RUNAWAY
NRS operates the NCS, which is the 24/7 operations of the 1-800-RUNAWAY hotline and online crisis services at 1800RUNAWAY.org, including live chat, text, email, and forum services. These free, confidential crisis services are available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Trained staff and volunteers provide non-judgmental, non-sectarian, and non-directive support to empower youth and their families to develop a plan of action to address the crises. 1-800-RUNAWAY is funded through the Family and Youth Services Bureau in the Administration for Children, Youth and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Along with hotline, cah, text, email, forum and online resources, NRS also offers education tools and resources for youth, families, service providers, teachers, public health professionals, and community members that teach about prevention strategies, including the Let’s Talk: Runaway Prevention Curriculum. This interactive curriculum is designed to help youth build critical life skills and seek assistance from trusted contacts to avoid becoming homeless in the first place. Annually NRS supports more than 25,000 contacts with individuals seeking information, support, referrals and crisis intervention and prevention resources.
Comprehensive Community Based Youth Services (CCBYS)
NRS also operates as the 24/7 Information and Referral Line for Comprehensive Community Based Youth Services Centers (CCBYS) for Illinois youth, families, and social services agencies seeking housing and resources to deter youth from the Illinois Juvenile justice or Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.
Moca: Youth Mental Health Crisis and Referral Safeline
Mentally Overcoming Challenges and Adversity
NRS launched its third hotline with support from SAMSHA, the Illinois Teen Suicide Prevention Line in March 2025 to address the unmet needs of youth with mental health concerns unable or unwilling to utilize 988. NRS plans to expand the hotline to a national scale in coming years and the youth advisory board helped rebrand the hotline to MOCA MOCA is a safe place for all youth to talk about mental health challenges and get help locating resources in their community. MOCA can be reached via call or text at 1-888-504-MOCA (6622).
History of National Runaway Safeline (NRS)
Founded by a group of Chicago agencies and originally named Metro Help, the hotline was established in 1971 to fill a need for comprehensive crisis intervention for young people in Chicago. It was conceived as a centralized organization with 24-hour services, expertise in all youth-related issues and as an information clearinghouse of youth services.
In 1974, the organization received an eight-month federal demonstration grant to establish a national hotline. During this time, NRS received 11,000 calls, fully supporting the permanent need for a national hotline.
Since then, the organization, renamed from Metro Help to National Runaway Switchboard and more recently as the National Runaway Safeline.
