Coming soon to a community near you – the charity Missing People

As one of Missing People’s new Local Co-ordinators, I am responsible for co-ordinating the search in the London area, raising awareness of the crisis services available, and supporting families of the missing at a local level.

At the moment there are only three of us – in London, Yorkshire and the West Midlands – but the charity’s aim is to have a co-ordinator in every region by the end of 2013, ensuring that everything possible is being done to help vulnerable missing people and their families left behind. Lots of groundwork is being done to pave the way for Local Co-ordinators across the country and this is progressing well so far!

For the first time this week I am going to be visiting the family of a missing person who are in great need of support and will be working out with them how best we can offer the help they need at this difficult time. I was delighted to have had the opportunity to spend time with Wandsworth and Westminster Missing Person Units over the past months to talk through our strategies for joint working and supporting families in the future, which has been very useful indeed.

We are now on the look out for volunteers to join the search and help us raise awareness of the charity in the local community, starting with Londoners. We are building a team of people who give up their time to talk to local community groups and businesses, inspiring them to join the search and helping to raise vital funds for the charity.

We have been really pleased with the response from community groups such as the London Lions, Rotary Clubs and Church groups who want to help us raise awareness about Missing People and who have already started to raise money for us. Could you help us to inspire more groups and individuals to Join The Search?

To find out more about how you can help and be a part of this new and exciting work please visit: www.missingpeople.org.uk/inyourarea

Beth Knebel

Missing People Local Co-ordinator for London