January 24, 2011

Project Jason: A Voice for the Missing (A documentary by Christina Fontana)

"If you are over the age of 18 and you go missing in the United States, your hope of rescue is commonly placed in the hands of local law enforcement. In most states, if they don’t know how or don’t want to look for you, they won’t."
- "Project Jason: A Voice for the Missing" Web site
Kelly Jolkowski, the founder of Project Jason, is working with accomplished documentary filmmaker Christina Fontana to produce a film that will raise awareness about missing people and promote new state legislation that will save lives.

The film, "Project Jason: A Voice for the Missing," takes a hard-hitting look at the plight of missing adults in the United States, highlighting how some families have been left "abandoned and sometimes even abused because of a failed system." The film points out that, "unlike children, who are federally protected, adult missing person cases are handled by local law enforcement who all to frequently have no protocols or training in place on how to proceed with recovery efforts."

Kelly Jolkowski experienced this firsthand when her 19-year old son, Jason, disppeared on June 13, 2001, after setting out from his home in Omaha, Nebraska. He was to join his awaiting carpool to work, just walk eight blocks away, but he never made it. He is still missing today.

After struggling to find adequate, trained resources in the community who could assist her in finding her son, Jolkowski decided to create Project Jason, a non-profit organization, so other families would never feel as alone as she and her husband felt. Project Jason has reached out to the families of the missing to provide not only media exposure, but counseling and support retreats, and also outreach education to the community, and DNA training for law enforcement. Project Jason is now leading the fight to have grounbreaking legislation passed in all 50 states that will mprove the efficiency of the response in missing persons' cases. The legislation has already passed in 10 states and is now underway in others.

You can read more about the film and Project Jason here. I also encourage you to watch the video clip below.

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