A profile and needs assessment of runaway and homeless children was produced using survey data gathered from 210 youth services agencies throughout the United States. The National Network of Runaway and Youth Services conducted this survey to provide policymakers and the media with information about successful, cost-effective crisis intervention services. Shelter programs, it was found, work well. In order to maintain and strengthen their effectiveness, however, programs require: more resources for specialized staff training; capital improvement of their facilities; increased capacity for more youth; adequate staff salaries; additional service components; and, most crucially, complementary services for meeting the diverse youth and family problems. Furthermore, to reach unserved and underserved communities, urban programs expressed the need for additional (but not larger) facilities, and rural programs expressed the need for serving adjoining counties or unserved communities. Five major public policy recommendations were derived from the survey: (1) Congress and the Reagan Administration should increase the annual appropriation of the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act; (2) in States lacking runaway and homeless youth legislation, government should augment private and Federal funds to serve these youth; (3) the Department of Health and Human Services should conduct further national studies and data collection activities on runaway and homeless youth, the children served by shelters, and the family dynamics which foster runaway behavior; (4) concerned policymakers, youth service professionals, and others must sustain a public education media campaign which focuses on the problems and needs of troubled youth; and (5) Congress and the Administration should enact a "National Youth Policy" to coordinate existing youth programs and create a legislative framework in which remaining needs and problems can be addressed. (KH)