Daybreak is partnering with the Dayton Police Department to launch the Ohio Missing Youth Pilot Program.
"This is more of an intervention and a diversion program," said Courtney Patel, Daybreak’s executive director.
She said during the two-year-initiative, the police will route non-critical phone calls about missing or runaway youth aged 10-to-20 to the nonprofit. Teams will search for the youth and Patel said once they are found, "they provide the young person with immediate support and then also connect them to services. This will help keep young people housed and also intercept folks before they become involved in some dangerous activity like criminal drug activity or in human trafficking situations."
In 2023, the Montgomery County Sheriff's Department connected 94 people it identifies as victims of human trafficking to support services. In 2024 and last year, they helped 75.
According to Patel, many of these young people and their families don’t have access to support services.
"Folks are coming from communities with poverty and gun violence and trauma and abuse and neglect. And those things are becoming far more frequent and far more intense," Patel said. "Unfortunately, our young folks are not usually connected to behavioral health supports or even regular health care supports."
The Ohio Department of Public Safety and the Ohio Department of Children and Youth Services are giving Daybreak $550,000 over two years to run this program.
The pilot program will begin this summer.
