May marks Missing Children’s Month

The Missing Children’s Network officially launched Missing Children’s Month with this year’s theme being “Hope Blooms.”

The network says, “May is dedicated to encouraging EVERYONE concerned with the well-being of children to make child safety a priority in our country. It also serves as a reminder of the importance of continuing our efforts to reunite missing children with their families.”

Last year, according to the RCMP’s 2021 Annual Report, law enforcement in Quebec registered 3,456 cases of missing children. This represents a slight decrease compared to 3,831 cases in the previous year and the Missing Children’s Network attributes it in part to the health measure restrictions imposed by the government in response to the on-going pandemic.

Key highlights of the annual report:

• 59% of all cases involved females
• 72% were runaways of which 59% were females;
• 67% of missing children were found within 24 hours, while 92% were located within a week;
• 6 AMBER Alerts were triggered in the province.

Throughout the month of May, the Missing Children’s Network will pay tribute to missing children by highlighting one long-term unresolved case, per day, on its social media platforms.

“By posting and circulating these cases on social media, our hope is to generate new information that will provide searching families with the gift of closure”, stated Pina Arcamone, Director General of the Missing Children’s Network. “As well, weekly safety tips will be posted, and followers will be invited to share these important messages aimed at preventing child victimization.”

The organization will also host two webinars for youth-serving professionals on the prevention of runaways and sexual exploitation of minors.

The month will conclude with the publication of the organization’s annual poster featuring 12 unresolved missing children’s cases.

About Missing Children’s Day

National Missing Children’s Day was first observed in 1983, following a proclamation by U.S. president Ronald Reagan. In the years 1979 to 1981, a series of child abductions shocked the American public. Etan Patz was only six years old when he disappeared on his way to school on May 25, 1979. He was never found and was legally declared dead in 2001. National Missing Children’s Day falls on the anniversary of his disappearance.

In 1986, the Solicitor General of Canada declared May 25^th to be National Missing Children’s Day in Canada.  This annual awareness day is international in scope with over 50 countries pausing on May 25^th to honour its missing children and salute the courage and resilience of families living every parent’s worst nightmare.

About the Missing Children’s Network

 Founded in 1985, the Missing Children’s Network is a non-profit organization whose mission is to assist parents in the search for their missing child and to contribute, through public education, to reduce the occurrence of children disappearing in Quebec. To date, the organization has worked closely with law enforcement to safely recover 1773 children and reunite them with their searching families.

The Missing Children’s Network is a front-line partner of the AMBER Alert in Quebec and a recognized member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) National Centre for Missing Persons and Unidentified Remains (NCMPUR).