We asked the youth for names of, I think, at least two contact people who would be likely to know their whereabouts across time. We also mailed out cards periodically just to see if they had moved or not, see if we got a return, see if it got returned in the mail to us, see if there was a forwarding address on there.

We also worked with the child welfare worker. Sometimes informally the child welfare worker might know, "Oh Jimmy went over to... He got a job over in this part of the city. I think he's living in this home over there." It's really staying in touch with a lot of people from the system because there are a lot of informal networks going on. We always conveyed our own contact information and gave them cards to mail to us, which sometimes that's hard for anyone to hold onto yet another piece of paper but sometimes that would work out.

When they're in foster care, yes there is a database of where they are, but sometimes when you're dealing with youth, they run away. They can change placements very very quickly. There is a lot of turmoil going on there, so it's another whole piece of the research process. You really have to devote a lot of time to tracking youth.