Growing My Social Capital: It's Who You Know, Not What You Know

1)      One person must be a domain expert in your industry. 

My idea is a national child protection program against abduction

I say down with a local Child Abduction Response Team (C.A.R.T) from our local sheriff’s department, Office Rodriquez, to discuss the problem Florida problem with child abduction and how such incidence are currently being handled. She gave me some national statistics that were quite alarming, however, it gave me more incentive to press forward with my idea. When a missing child is killed it is 44% in less than 1 hour, 74% within 3 hours, 91% within 24 hours, and 99% within 7 days. What more do we need to realize helping find an abducted child as quickly as possible is vital to our nation? She was extremely excited to know that I have such a strong passion to partner with them in being proactive in child safety. My program would act as a liaison between the public and the CART, whereby initiating a response for help in locating the missing child. Once a request is made and the CART Special Agent Supervisor is contacted, a member call out would be initiated.  

2)      One person must be an expert on your market. 

Fortunately, I was able to interview someone from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s Missing Endangered Persons Information Clearinghouse. This is the central repository of information regarding missing endangered persons in Florida. MEPIC, as it is called, assists law enforcement agencies and Florida’s citizens in finding missing persons by providing analytical services and engaging the public in the search. One of the ways this officer said my service could help is by educating the public on Amber or Missing Child Alerts. Sure we get Amber Alerts sent to our phones, but then what? If we are working we can’t really run out and look for the person, or if we are driving we can’t – or shouldn’t – have enough time to even read the alert. One of the ways would could improve is by educating the public on the expectations about the response of the alert. Alerts aren’t productive if no one heeds them. Another issue is, that an Amber Alert takes about 3-12 hours to be sent (not instantly like most people assume) and as you can see above 74% of missing children are killed within the first 12 hours. By not including pictures, share links, child descriptions in the AMBER Alerts you get on your phones we are really not doing our best for these children. Speed, photo and share-ability are very important features that AMBER Alerts are missing. AMBER Alerts have been around over 19 years, and really have not updated what they do. My program has all these things wrapped up in one location, ready for transmittal to law enforcement.

3)      One person must be an important supplier to your industry. 

The Lassy Project, born after a tragedy the abduction of a 10-year old girl, which honors the little girl, Jessica Ridgeway’s memory every day by building safer communities. From this organization in Boulder, Co, I was able to find out how to provide a service to parents and guardians the ability to notify an entire local community about their missing child in seconds. With the single push of a button, parents can mobilize a trusted group of family, friends and neighbors immediately to help with their search. One of the things I liked about utilizing this groups idea for me was to develop a test for the community to see just how fast they could find a missing child! What a great idea and a great selling tool for my idea of child safety education and support.

Reflection: An old adage is, “It takes a Village,” and frankly, to find missing children – alive – it takes a village and the goal is to have an entire village ready to be called upon in any given situation of a missing child. It is always great to talk to someone or read about someone finding a missing child. I learned many years ago while in a sales position that target marketing saves time and energy, but as I went about this assignment, I was reminded how important it is to find passionate people who value your idea. Sometimes, you find those with intrinsic passion or motivation, and at other times, you must give them reason to find the extrinsic motivation to become a part of the ‘village.’