For Alabama’s missing children and vulnerable adults, even a moment of visibility can change everything. Your support helps place their faces back in the light - where hope lives and answers begin.

Operation Safe Return is a statewide visibility initiative created to bring urgent attention to missing children, vulnerable adults, and individuals who may be at increased risk of exploitation or trafficking. While the project prioritizes missing children, it is not limited to them. Every missing person deserves to be seen.

By placing verified missing person cases on high traffic digital billboards, Operation Safe Return helps keep eyes open and conversations active. Even a few seconds of visibility can spark recognition, generate new leads, or re engage an investigation that has gone silent. For families who have waited far too long for answers, this visibility becomes a lifeline of hope.

Beginning the week of Giving Tuesday 2025, we set our initial fundraising goal of $12,000 will allow us to fund three billboards for at least one full year of visibility beginning in January 2026. Alternatively, we also left the option open for several shorter term billboards as well. Each billboard delivers much needed visibility for featured cases and increases the chance that someone will recognize a face and come forward with information.

As of July 2026, since launching Operation Safe Return, we’ve placed 16 billboards across Alabama and the surrounding region, helping bring missing-person cases to the attention of travelers and communities.

Of those, 11 billboards were funded directly through Operation Safe Return. The remaining placements were generously donated by our billboard partners, allowing us to extend the initiative even further.

As new requests continue to come in, we want to keep the Operation Safe Return fund at a level that ensures we can continue placing billboards when they’re needed. That is where your help comes in!

All donations will be deposited into a designated account used solely for this project. Any funds raised beyond the initial goal will expand the number of billboards and sustain the initiative throughout the year.

Alabama Cold Case Advocacy is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to supporting families and strengthening collaboration with law enforcement statewide. Operation Safe Return is a powerful extension of that mission, giving communities, civic groups, and local businesses a meaningful way to enhance public safety and help bring the missing home.

Your support today ensures that Alabama’s missing are not forgotten tomorrow.
Help us shine a light. One billboard. One community. One chance at hope at a time.

Be the Spark.

From Keri New (President & Founder), Mary Storm (Vice President & Co-Founder), and the entire ACCA team, thank you for your generosity and commitment to Alabama's Cold Cases!

Operation Safe Return: Lighting the Way Home

Every Second Counts. Every Face Matters.

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