Financial Services Centers Cooperative wants credit unions to join the effort to help build awareness of the numbers of children who run away from home each year.

The shared branching network has joined the National Runaway Switchboard to support Answering The Call, its program to build awareness about the problem during November, National Runaway Prevention Month.

FSCC CEO Sarah Canepa Bang said the support could be as simple as printing out a flyer or poster to display in credit union branches.

"The youth of today is our future. As community leaders and more importantly, as parents, we need to find ways to help prevent youth runaway," Bang said. "The 'Answering the Call' campaign serves as a great way to spread the word on youth runaway as well as gain more awareness and support through credit unions and their members. The credit union movement has a long history of helping children and youth. We hope more credit unions will open their hearts to this worthy cause."

According to Maureen Blaha, NRS executive director, NRS receives an overwhelming amount of requests for help with calls coming in from across the country, "While NRS handles more than 100,000 calls a year, youth issues can be very complex. We find that family dynamics is the most frequent problem identified by crisis callers. Youth run away from home for many reasons but our job is to help keep them safe and off the streets."