OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — People took a pause out of their rush hour commute to stop by Project Harmony's "Donut leave them behind event," Wednesday morning. Staff are trying to raise awareness about missing and runaway youth.
Project Harmony is an advocacy group that helps children who have been abused or neglected. One of its initiatives through the non-profit — the Missing Youth Services Program.
It started in 2018 as a collaboration with the Omaha Police Department. They work with families and children to address why they may be running away and how to create a healthy environment. They say one of the many reasons children runaway from home is because of abuse.
"When these kids go missing from home, they're obviously at higher risk for things like sex trafficking," said Breanna Delp, missing youth services specialist at Project Harmony. "They might be connected with the wrong crowd, getting gang involved, using drugs. Our program is meant to be preventative. Once we see that kid goes missing one time, we try to get involved right away."
One of the reasons this is important is because just in Omaha, nearly 3,000 children and teens are reported missing every year.
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