Child Find of America, Inc.

What is your organization aiming to accomplish?
Briefly describe your organization’s goals here:

In order to create a world in which every child can thrive in a safe, healthy and legal environment, Child Find of America provides professional services to prevent and resolve child abduction and the family conflicts that can lead to abduction and abuse.

Many parents are unaware of the impact their conflict has on their children, but research shows early prevention interventions, especially the dissemination of educational materials, are impactful and lead to better outcomes for children and families. From a very early age, children who live in high conflict homes live with fear, anger, anxiety, sadness, disturbed sleep, and more health problems than their peers. They are more likely to be aggressive, depressed and antisocial, and to have poor interpersonal skills, cognitive abilities, and difficulty focusing and succeeding at school.

Exposure to parental conflict teaches kids the wrong way to interact with others. Children do not get used to parental conflict -- they become more sensitive to it and more vulnerable to its effects. Consequently, they are more likely to continue the cycle of conflict and high risk parenting.

What are your strategies for making this happen?
Briefly describe your organization’s strategies here:

"Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) have a tremendous impact on future violence victimization and perpetration, and lifelong health and opportunity. Working together, we can help create neighborhoods, communities, and a world in which every child can thrive."

In 2017 Child Find sought a grant from the American Legion’s Child Welfare Foundation to produce and distribute our In Safe Hands tool kit to Head Starts nationwide addressing family conflict and violence and its adverse impact on children (ACEs). The initial stage of the project was completed in September of 2017 at which time Head Start collaboration offices in all 50 states received a supply of kits, free of charge, to distribute to local Head Starts and Early Head Starts at annual conferences, meetings and trainings. The response to the kit was very positive, with dozens of Head Start offices requesting additional kits – as well as trainings on its application and delivery in the field of early childhood education.

In the 2017/18 fiscal year, Child Find piloted the In Safe Hands project conducting workshops for Head Starts and early educators in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and throughout New York. Each presentation was evaluated by participants - and reviews were enthusiastic - as well as informative for the development of future trainings.

In fiscal year 2018/19 Child Find actively pursued funding for reprinting the tool kit – as well as dollars to fund Child Find’s educational sessions nationwide. While we received some funding to provide workshops, we continued this pursuit in fiscal year 2019/20. Without funding, Child Find must charge, at cost, allied professionals for the delivery of workshops and materials. (All programs and services to families remain free of charge.) Strategies for making this project happen, mirror those of our proven strategies for sustaining our agency over the years, including:
- Grant-writing
- Targeted mailings
- Free regional and national online fundraising appeals such as "Hudson Valley Gives" (raised $710 in 2019, resulting in 1 free full-day workshop for 30 early educators and the distribution of 60 In Safe Hands tool kits.)
- Press releases
- Listings in national 211 Directories

Child Find was founded in 1980 by the left-behind mother of a parentally abducted child. Since then, Child Find has played a significant role in the creation of laws that now make all forms of child abduction a crime, and in the establishment of a national clearinghouse to assist law enforcement in their investigations. Child Find also contributed to the establishment of May 25th as National Missing Children’s Day. In 2002, the White House recognized Child Find's vital work and expertise by inviting the Executive Director to speak at the first White House Conference on Missing and Exploited Children.

Over the years Child Find has greatly expanded its scope of services, providing prevention, education, mediation, conflict resolution, investigation, information and referral and support services to families in crisis in both the United States and internationally in more than a dozen countries. Child Find is a national expert in the prevention and resolution of parental and family abduction.

Child Find’s training team is comprised of experienced case workers who have helped thousands of people facing family crisis situations, domestic violence, child abuse, parenting disputes, and child safety issues. Our work, staff development and extensive research informs and updates our curricula.

The CDC-Kaiser Permanente Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study is one of the largest investigations of childhood abuse and neglect and household challenges and later-life health and well-being. Developed in FY 20/21 with ACEs in mind, our new CMS began capturing how our caseworker's efforts support those protective factors. In FY 21-22, over 6,900 efforts were recorded (see 2022 Annual Report).

Child Find's development and continued distribution of the In Safe Hands tool kit addresses common caregiving risk and protective factors related to ACEs. 1,300 tool kits were delivered to Headstart Collaboration Centers in all 50 states in FY 20/21. In FY 21/22, 500 more were distributed at the request of previous recipients.
- In FY 19/20 we developed our Continuity of Operations Plan and purchased equipment that carried through FY 20/21, enabling Child Find to continue providing our essential services to children and families uninterrupted through the pandemic. In FY 2021-22 we upgraded our mobile phone system adding the ability to pick up calls from the office in real-time. We also contracted with a translation service allowing us to access over 300 languages for clients while the caller is on the line without having to call back.
- In FY 19/20 We assessed and upgraded our case management system to streamline the input process for caseworkers, and to create new ways to capture information and efforts we were unable to measure before. In FY 21/22 we further refined the CMS for more accurate demographic client reports and further streamline intakes.

Challenges and What's Next:
- Education & Training: We ran into roadblocks due to staff absences during COVID, delaying production of live webinars. As there is now more demand for our in-person trainings at conferences, we have altered the timeline for completion.
- Outreach: In FY 21/22 we created an ongoing social media promotion for the Parent Help Program. As of 2/13/2023, this ad has generated 482,382 impressions, 283,472 reach, 7,093 link clicks, and 2.15% CTR. In response to an increasingly remote climate, this fiscal year, we revamped our website and social media outlets, with a more accessible user interface to accommodate individuals with disabilities. We have made significant upgrades to our web pages with missing child information, optimizing over half of our that database with convenient shareable links, allowing website visitors to easily distribute essential information.
-Our social media presence has improved significantly. We have amassed an average of 30,000 visitors to our Facebook page every month, and we are working to expand our presence on Instagram (launched in FY 21/22) and Twitter. This expansion is a substantial step for issuing missing child alerts, and educating parents and families seeking our services.