Award Information
Description of original award (Fiscal Year 2021, $6,000,000)
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children® is a private, nonprofit 501(c)(3) corporation whose mission is to help find missing children, reduce child sexual exploitation, and prevent child victimization. NCMEC works with families, victims, professionals in the field, and the public to assist with preventing child abductions, recovering missing children, and providing services to deter and combat child sexual exploitation.
NCMEC achieves its mission through the provision of core functions set forth under 34 U.S.C. § 11293, which are designed to address the problem of missing and sexually exploited children.
NCMEC incorporates thoughtful design, implementation, documentation, and evaluation of short- and long-term goals. Staff members monitor, report, and analyze service outcomes, continually identifying and responding to evolving needs. Progress toward program goals is measured quarterly by assessing the number of population members served. NCMEC accepts the unrelenting charge to protect our nation’s most vulnerable individuals from those who seek to harm them. Our children deserve no less.
NCMEC will partner with the U.S. Department of Justice on this project in the same way it has worked cooperatively with their Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention since 1984. Key goals and activities include, but are not limited to, serving as the national resource center and information clearinghouse for missing and exploited children; operating a national 24-hour, toll-free telephone line by which individuals may report information regarding the location of any missing child; operating a CyberTipline® to provide online users and electronic service providers a means to report internet-related child sexual exploitation; providing training and technical assistance to individuals and professionals in the field in the prevention, investigation, prosecution, and treatment of cases involving missing and sexually exploited children; and supporting development of tools and new technologies to modernize and improve efficiencies related to managing leads submitted to the CyberTipline for their use by law enforcement.