Programs

Child Find's Programs & Services

Location Services

Child Find's 1-800-I-AM-LOST toll-free number receives more than 5,000 calls for assistance each year. An in-house location staff investigates each case of a missing child using computer technology, the Internet and a massive national network of partners, including local law enforcement agencies, the FBI, state missing children clearinghouses, schools and other non-profit organizations. Photos of missing children are disseminated nationwide through the support of hundreds of media outlets, other businesses and volunteers who post, circulate, print or air Child Find missing children posters.

In 2011 there were 111 open location cases registered with Child Find. Additional location services were rendered through the Parent Help Program.

PARENT HELP
The Parent Help program was established as an extension of Child Find’s original Child Abduction Prevention and Support Services (CAPSS), to enhance those existing services for dads and moms parenting apart and dealing with problems sharing kids, visitation, custody, and child support. Free, confidential telephone assistance is provided, nationwide, by calling 1-800-716-3468 or 1-800-A-WAY-OUT. These toll-free help lines connect families impacted by child custody crisis, parental abduction and denied visitation to a wide array of services including crisis intervention, prevention action, conflict resolution and mediation, relationship coaching, anger management, parenting and fatherhood education, co-parenting planning, comprehensive case management, educational resources and more. On staff mediators have extensive experience in divorce, custodial and family mediation.

PARENT HELP was designed in conjunction with New York State’s Child Support Division and with support from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services with the goal to serve as a model program to prevent parental child abduction and denied visitation while increasing establishment of and compliance with child support orders. The program was launched in New York State in the beginning of June, 2007 and went nationwide in October 2009.

Of Parent Help’s 2505 open cases in the 2010-11 fiscal year, 343 of them involved children who were parentally abducted, 11 involved runaways and 47 cases concerned children with whom the callers lost contact for other reasons.

Click the link below to go to the PARENT HELP website:

Watch the PARENT HELP video.

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Information and Referral
Over the years Child Find has developed a comprehensive information and referral network and an extensive library that serves parents, educators, law enforcement and human service professionals on a daily basis.

Public Education
Child Find of America staff, board members and volunteers work year round to educate various publics about the issues of missing children, how to keep children safe and what to do in times of crisis. Public education efforts include participation in health and safety fairs, civic event and community organization presentations and workshops on Internet safety. Educational materials, and Child Find's DocuPak - which helps families keep vital information about their children at hand, are distributed to school children and their parents. Press releases, articles and interviews with local and national media also bring attention and awareness to missing children. In-service training of allied professionals also increases understanding of the issue and strengthens our ability to prevent and resolve all cases of missing children. Child Find's website provides Internet users access to many of our materials.

-800-I-AM-LOST 1-800-A-WAY-OUT

Child Find of America Inc. is a national not-for-profit organization that locates missing children through active investigation and publicity, prevents child abduction through education, and prevents/resolves incidents of parental abduction through conflict management and mediation.