As the mother of an 18-year-old, I’m familiar with the difficulty of navigating the minefield of a teenager’s emotions and decision-making capabilities.

Sometimes I wish I had body armor, but all I’m armed with is my limited patience. There is no foolproof way to successfully raise a child, especially a teenager. And, yet, for centuries all parents have been forced to face this arduous task.

Research shows that the teenage brain is in transition and won’t be fully developed until the mid-20s. That means that at the time a child is beginning to test his wings and get ready to fly, his ability to make rational decisions is impaired.

If you add to that a dysfunctional or stressful family situation (divorce, illness, drugs/alcohol, loss of a job), or personal safety issues (physical, sexual or emotional abuse), you may just have a recipe for disaster.

A teenager in this situation doesn’t have the coping skills, decision-making skills, or even communication skills with which to survive. To them, the only recourse may be to leave the situation behind.

Around 1.7 million youth each year are living on the streets, in shelters, or moving from place to place because they have left home. According to Rich Brooks, executive director of Renton Area Youth and Family Services (RAYS), if someone doesn’t connect with a child who has run away within about 24 to 48 hours, they become prey to any number of predators on the street.

What that means is that these kids are just a few hours away from potentially becoming the next generation of drug users, prostitutes, thieves, abusers, and more.

I recently spent a wonderful hour and a half with Steve Olson, Chemical Dependency and Licensed Mental Health counselor for RAYS, who has spent the last 30 years working with at-risk youth. Most of the kids are already in the court system and have been referred to him by their probation officer. His job is to help them get clean of drugs or alcohol, provide mental health counseling, help them build coping and communication skills, and put them on the road to a better life.

“I try to help them reframe their situation,” Olson says. “You try not to tell them no, because you can lose them if you do.”

He says that once a kid is on the street, they know they’re in danger and have to be on guard all the time. That’s why it’s seductive to self-medicate or hook up with other kids who seem to know what they’re doing, even if what they’re doing is illegal.

But he reminds me that kids don’t look five years down the road.

“Remember that the frontal cortex of their brain hasn’t fully developed yet,” he says. “They live in the here and now.”

That means they often turn to selling drugs (or themselves) for quick money, because that’s what they need today. They don’t think about the consequences or what may happen tomorrow.

“What I teach them are survival skills,” Olson says. “I work with them to identify some strength on which they can capitalize. Many times, it’s something simple, like they’re loyal, or they’re a good communicator. But we take that and build from there.”

Olson related the story of a young boy who was “stranger-raped” when he was 13. The only way this boy knew how to deal with that was by turning to drugs. He was suspended from school and eventually ended up on the streets. By the time he was assigned to Olson, he was living under a bridge.

“I used to have to go down there and wake him up to get him to a doctor’s appointment,” Olson says. “But I have stayed in contact with him for almost 20 years.”

Today, that young man (now in his 30s) owns his own business and is a productive member of society.

“Once you can get a kid to believe in himself,” says Olson, “you can set the table for all sorts of things.”

Lynn Bohart is executive director of the Renton Community Foundation that oversees a number of funds that provide support to those in need in Renton. She can be reached at lbohart@rentonfoundation.org.  If you have a child who needs help, call Renton Area Youth and Family Services at 425-271-5600.