Postmen and women across the country will be assisting a national charity to locate vulnerable missing children and adults, significantly increasing the number of people committed to help find them. Royal Mail is partnering with the charity Missing People to distribute ‘high risk’ alerts to its 124,000 postmen and women while out on their postal rounds.
Child Rescue and High Risk Missing People Alerts will be sent to the company’s extensive network of handheld scanners, used to track and sign for deliveries, on a geographically-targeted and, when appropriate, national basis.
The alerts will also appear on Royal Mail’s employee website and, where possible, on 1,800 television screens across its offices, reaching all 148,000 staff. This will be the first time an organisation has made its business-wide communication channels available to the Missing People charity.
Currently, 123,000 people directly receive Child Rescue Alerts, as well as other members of the public being informed of missing person appeals through Twitter, Facebook, digital billboards and media and corporate partnerships.
The new partnership with Royal Mail will effectively double this. Sue Whalley, Chief Operations Officer, Royal Mail, said: "Royal Mail’s postmen and women are out in the community six days a week, across the country. We are all very aware of the trauma experienced by the families and communities of missing people, particularly children. We want to use our unique position to support this important service and perhaps help to reunite families with their missing loved ones."
Jo Youle, CEO of Missing People said: "When someone goes missing and is at risk, every minute after a disappearance is crucial to bringing them home safely. Our partnership with Royal Mail is a truly inspired way to spread an alert quickly and to the very people who are the eyes and ears of their local communities."
Source: Royal Mail