The present study aimed to describe the main goals of four service centers for street children, according to their coordinators, as well as the coordinators ideas concerning childhood in the streets. Moreover, it aimed to investigate the perception of the coordinators about the youths' objectives for accessing these service centers and the relationship these services develop with the street context. This study aimed also to describe the evaluation these coordinators make of the work developed by their centers and by the network of services. Six institutional coordinators of four service settings of Porto Alegre were interviewed. According to the coordinators, the institutional objectives are the youths' social reengagement, the defense of the rights of such population, as well as supply basic survival conditions for them. The coordinators evaluated in a positive way the network functioning, and pointed out the main difficulties and the possible ways to improve it.
service institutions; street children and adolescents; institutional coordinators