Runaway and homeless young people generally do not seek help unless they are in a severe personal crisis. For the past 7 years, the Division of Adolescent Medicine, Childrens Hospital of Los Angeles, has learned a good deal about how to intervene effectively with these youths and divert them from high-risk behaviors such as prostitution and drug abuse. The program model we have developed has five major components: 1) networking and consolidation, 2) outreach, 3) short-term crisis shelter, 4) comprehensive medical and psychosocial care, and 5) long-term shelter and case management. Our approach has been collaborative; we subcontract a substantial portion of the work to other youth agencies in the community in order to build and strengthen the network of existing services.