The Rising (Street) Generation: The Vancouver Runaway Revolution and 1970s’ Child Saving

This article delves into the birth, evolution, and significance of runaways as a publicly defined social problem, and its relationship to the transformation of youth work in 1960s and 70s Vancouver. Using media reports and municipal records, we illuminate how running away and transient youth culture helped produce a new era of social reform around “saving” young people. Like their child saving antecedents that emphasized the protection of minors, reform organizations and personnel constructed a new public child—this time a teenager—and advocated for children’s rights. New reform gestures like the runaway house called Cool Aid and the detached youth workers agency called the Gastown Team exemplify the youth advocacy orientation of this modern child rescue moment. By the late 1970s, however, the era of advocacy and its programs seemed to have failed at resolving the problem as more and more young people ended up on the streets. Like its 19th century child saving antecedent, this era of youth advocacy ultimately upheld youth dependency, deferred to coercion, and insisted on policing teens over expanding on their rights.