Every year, thousands of families are affected by child exploitation from predators. Finding Kids is dedicated to helping youth and their families recover from these dangerous situations. Based in Los Altos, they work in Northern California, Central California, and Northern Nevada aiding families in crisis. Their work blends community outreach, technology, and collaboration with law enforcement to make an impact in the lives of affected youth.
At the heart of the organization is a team of retired law enforcement, private investigators, and social workers who work tirelessly to solve missing child cases. “We’re absolutely relentless with what we do. We never give up on a case. We don’t give up on a family, we don’t give up on a child. We treat every child and every case as people,” Chief Executive Officer Isabelle Finney said.
Finding Kids started back in 2018 with their first case, finding a girl who was lured away from her home online. “Because she was labeled by law enforcement as a runaway, not a lot was being done to find her,” Finney said. Luckily, through Finding Kids, a private investigator was hired and able to find the child quickly.
From there, they have grown into a nonprofit organization with around 20 private investigators, and five full time employees. They’ve helped find over 280 missing youth since their first case.
The issue of missing and endangered children is a surprisingly big one. “There were about 8,000 missing child reports in the Bay Area last year. We believe every single week there are about 53 kids that go missing in California that are never found,” Finney said.
Their work goes beyond just locating kids. Finding Kids also helps families, caregivers, and youth in the aftermath of crises. In 2023, they introduced an aftercare program, which provides an advocate who has more insight into what is happening. “We assign every parent or caregiver a parent advocate who has lived the experience, who has gone through the crisis and the horrific experience of having a missing or exploited child and they’re able to provide mentoring, coaching, guidance, and support to the family,” Finney said. They also have youth advocates who can work directly with adolescents.
Many child exploitation cases start on the internet, a reason why Finding Kids’ work is so crucial. “There was an FBI agent who said there were over 750,000 predators online every single day, actively looking to engage with children, and really every single one of them has a key to your home – the internet,” Finney said. “It’s a crime that happens behind firewalls, behind systems that no one is seeing. Parents don’t know who [kids] are talking to in their bedrooms.”
Finney believes that to address the problem, education is key. “It’s the awareness level that is quite low about what is really going on,” she said. We also need to be more understanding. “The term runaway can imply that they’re a bad child, or they’re delinquent, it has quite negative connotations which is why we try and not use that word. They’re a missing and endangered child. Every child, every minor that is missing, is endangered because they’re at risk and they’re very vulnerable to being exploited,” Finney said.
Programs like Finding Kids are available to anyone. “We exist, and we’re here as a resource. We’re here for families that need us,” Finney said. Finding Kids’ services are free, and accessible to whoever is seeking help.
“More than anything we want to help address whatever is going on that has made the child vulnerable in the first place, whatever trauma they may have experienced. We want them to stabilize. We want them to get back into school and get their education, and we want them to have healthy productive lives and healthy, productive futures,” Finney said.
