DM appeal marks National Missing Persons Helpline relaunch

The National Missing Persons Helpline is relaunching today (Thursday) as Missing People as part of International Missing Children’s Day. The charity is sending out the first UK direct mailing to help fund the search for missing kids.

The rebrand aims to make the charity’s position clearer and change perceptions that its services are concentrated around the helpline.

Missing People chief executive Paul Tuohy says: “The previous name implied that our service was limited to a single helpline, however we are now a fully fledged charity that offers a wide range of active services.

The first DM appeal to find missing children aims to repeat the success of a US scheme where an appeal is featured each week in 58 million postal packs. The campaign will be run in partnership with voucher and coupon business Valassis.

The charity also plans to roll out a project supported by the Vodafone UK Foundation to improve ways young people can access the charity’s Runaway Helpline service, as well as boost fundraising and marketing activity.