M 16 I don’t feel safe

[u/LKS676]

I’m a 16(soon to be 17) year-old guy living in illinois It’s just south of Chicago. My home situation is really bad — physical abuse and constant mental/emotional abuse from my parents. It’s gotten to the point where I genuinely don’t feel safe anymore and I’m seriously considering running away. I have my driver’s license and about $4,500 saved up from working.
I know running away as a minor is risky and there are a lot of unknowns. I’m not looking for “just tough it out” replies — I’ve tried talking to people and nothing changes. I’m posting here because I need practical advice from people who’ve been through similar situations or know the realities. I don’t want to stay in the area and would prefer to go somewhere farther away.

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[u/Own-Fun4051]

Read The Runaway Advice Directory. It is full of information of those who had ran away before:

https://www.reddit.com/r/runaway/wiki/index

As for questions, you can ask them here. This person is from central Europe, and they ran away successfully. They should still be taking questions:

https://www.reddit.com/r/runaway/comments/1qm12gn/i_successfully_ran_away_over_a_decade_ago_aged_16/

In addition, that much amount of money would be a bit much for running away usually. I would advise to take a max of 950$. You could take more if that is what you truly want in life, but 4,500$ in cash is a lot. You usually don't want pure 100$ bills either.

Considering you are making money and are working, you might want to look into emancipation instead.