iStand Parent Network Inc.

The Elevate Prize will infuse resources, technologies and expertise into our life's work to help parents bring children home from International Parental Child Abduction (IPCA) and advance effective policy reform to prevent and end this crime against children and families. 

We are progressively seeing our vision come to life, and the Elevate Prize will exponentially increase our capacity to locate and reunite more internationally-abducted children with parents, prevent more abductions, foster international understanding and action on this issue, and create more international pathways for children to come home.

We will accomplish this by:

• Sharing the extraordinary story of my daughter's abduction and homecoming as an inspiring, actionable model for reunification and issue reform. 

• Forging partnerships with the Global Missing Children's Network to license and use its GMCNngine machine learning and artificial intelligence technologies to locate internationally-abducted children. 

• Implementing Mapping Project, an initiative that uses GIS technologies to accurately illustrate the problem scope in the US and globally; guide policymaking and resource allocation; inform targeting strategies for IPCA prevention and casework.  

• Creating global awareness on the harm and lifelong trauma for victims of IPCA.

• Embracing opportunities to diffuse and sustain our work through technology investments, systems improvements, and nonprofit management.

My daughter is an IPCA survivor. On Christmas Day 2011, my 4-year old was taken by her father from our little town of Morehead, KY, to Mali after disagreeing with a joint custody ruling. For nearly three years, I fought for her return, martialing resources of hope, courage, and local, national and global support to bring her home. 

Our Mission4Muna captivated the hearts and minds of my home community, friends and strangers, students, national media, members of Congress, a U.S. ambassador, and fellow parents of abducted children. Our efforts eventually moved Malian officials to action.  On July 11, 2014, we were escorted to the Bamako airport by U.S. Marines and put on an airplane bound for home. 

Through creative tension, direct action, public platforms and unrelenting pursuit for my daughter, we succeeded, and also ignited a new movement to prevent and end IPCA through iStand Parent Network.  

My story demonstrates the redemptive resiliency of the human spirit, the force of collective compassion, and a parent's relentless love. It caused politicians to pay attention and created a forward vision for bringing abducted children home and advancing family-centered public policy solutions to this crime against children and families. 

Low return rates, fragmented and uneven federal response, and wide variation in perceptions of IPCA complicate efforts to bring children home. Annually, the U.S. State Department estimates 800-1000 American children are unlawfully removed from the United States and taken to a foreign nation by an abductor parent. Congressional estimates indicate that fewer than one-third of these children ever come home. The U.S. Department of Justice criminalizes abductions under 18 U.S. Code 1204, however prosecutions are rare.

The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of Parental Child Abduction, of which the U.S. Is a signatory, provides a legal mechanism to return some children to their nations of habitual residence. Yet, nations vary in Hague interpretation and enforcement. Worse, most Non-Hague signatories also lack bilateral agreements with the U.S. for returning children.  

IPCA imposes lasting trauma upon abducted children. For parents, it is emotionally debilitating and often exacts a devastating financial toll.

iStand employs a five-fold approach to IPCA prevention, resolution and reform. Through Parent Advocacy, Public Policy, Legal Reform, Communications and Research and Sustainability initiatives, we press for IPCA prevention and reunifications and systemic reform through parent-driven solutions, multi-level stakeholder engagement, public awareness, collaborative partnerships and diplomacy. 

State Department officials told us that we are disruptive. They spoke of concern that an organized parent community would press for greater oversight and responsiveness from government for America's Stolen Children. They are correct.  

We have seen the evidence of this disruption in the passage and implementation of federal legislation to help parents return their children, and to require greater oversight and more rigorous external reporting among federal agencies tasked with this problem. 

We've seen it in the annual and quarterly engagements with iStand and State Department officials at our International Parents Conference, and we've seen it in progressive responsiveness and incremental policy changes on our issue.

As an example, iStand, in collaboration with the Coalition to End International Parental Child Abduction, worked closely with U.S. Customs and Border Protection' to make the Prevent Abduction Program more accessible to parents seeking to prevent abductions. CBP officials told us that our collaboration was not typical.

We also build and maintain strong relationships with congressional members and staff, hosting briefings, offering testimony at hearings and adding important advocate voices to constituent and policy work on Capitol Hill.

Yet, our greatest innovation is the continuously-growing Network itself. IPCA solutions spring from it. 

The ultimate measure of our impact is the 53 children abducted 13 countries whom we have helped to reunite with loving parents and families. We don't stop working when kids come home. We facilitate aftercare for parents and children, and create opportunities for returned youth to meet each other and socialize with peers who "get them". Our returned youth are growing their own network to welcome other kids home and provide peer-based support via social media and in-person connections. 

Parents and family members regularly tell us that iStand is a lifeline and a mobilizing force. Attorneys contact us for referrals and guidance, congressional staff seek our expertise, and even the State Department and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children refer parents to us for help. 

In the last two years, we've utilized our first major grant to build a custom database to help streamline our casework and donor management, resumed our quarterly policy/advocacy rounds in Washington DC to keep the issue salient before key stakeholders, and continued building Network connections in the US and abroad. Above all, we are available to parents and families, offering empathy, support, experience and progressive actions to help them reunite with their children.