Take Root, a non-profit organization established on a grant from the United States
Department of Justice
A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice, is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...
, was the first missing-child organization to be founded by former
abducted children.
Founded in 2003 as a program under the auspices of the Association of Missing & Exploited Children's Organizations and independently incorporated as a
501(c)(3)
A 501(c)(3) organization is a United States corporation, Trust (business), trust, unincorporated association or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 of the United States Code. It is one of ...
in 2005, Take Root had over five hundred former abducted children participate in its ground-breaking
peer support
Peer support occurs when people provide knowledge, experience, emotional, social or practical help to each other. It commonly refers to an initiative consisting of trained supporters (although it can be provided by peers without training), and can ...
program for former abducted children, creating an unprecedented knowledge and database used by its Child Abduction Studies branch to develop multidisciplinary training, case consultation, and policy recommendations.
The agency's mission is to "insert the voice of the primary victim into public and policy discussions on child abduction, using the collected wisdom of former victims to improve America's missing-child response." Their tags-line are "beyond recovering missing-children; to helping missing-children recover" and, "where missing children are seen and heard." Take Root was the brain child of Melissa "Liss" Haviv, a Fulbright Scholar in cultural anthropology touted by NPR as a leading expert in the victimology of long term child abduction
See also
*
Child abduction
Child abduction or child theft is the unauthorized removal of a Minor (law), minor (a child under the age of Age of majority, legal adulthood) from the Child custody, custody of the child's Parent, natural parents or Legal guardian, legally appoi ...
*
Victimology
Victimology is the study of victimization, including the psychological effects on victims, the relationship between victims and offenders, the interactions between victims and the criminal justice system—that is, the police and courts, and co ...
*
International child abduction
The term international child abduction is generally synonymous with international parental kidnapping, child snatching, and child stealing.
In private international law the term usually refers to the illegal removal of children from their h ...
References
*Belzman, Josh
"Victims of Family Abduction Speak Out" MSNBC.com, May 14.
*Feeg, Veronica, "What is Not Part of the Child Abduction News Story?", Journal of Pediatric Nursing (Jannetti) 33 (1), Jan-Feb 2007.
*Office of Juvenile Justice & Delinquency Prevention, What About Me? Coping With the Abduction of a Brother or Sister (published 2007).
*Hammer, Nancy
USA Today, Sept 2003.
*Pressley, Sue Ann
The Washington Post, June 6, 2006:A01.
*Halloran, Liz
"When the Missing Return Recovery is Long Too" NPR, May 15, 2013
Children's charities based in the United States
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