Parents Step Ahead and National Center for Missing and Exploited Children Partner to Promote Child Safety

DALLAS, May 25, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Parents Step Ahead marked the beginning of a partnership with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children on May 24 at its last event for the school year at the Academy at West Birdville in Haltom City. Under the partnership, Parents Step Ahead and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) will work together to engage parents and communities on safety issues impacting children.

The NCMEC is a non-profit organization that serves as the nation's resource on the issues of missing and sexually exploited children. NCMEC provides information and resources to law enforcement, parents, and children including child victims as well as other professionals. Throughout the month of May, NCMEC has been conducting its Take 25 campaign that encourages families to take 25 minutes to talk to their children about safety and abduction prevention.

"We know that teaching children about safety works. Community events play an important role in helping parents understand how they can help save a child's life," said Ernie Allen, President and CEO of NCMEC. "We are very grateful to our local partners who share our interest in keeping children safe. They play an important role in raising public awareness in communities throughout America."

In collaboration with their Take 25 campaign, NCMEC participated in the May 24 event by giving a seminar to parents about social media safety. The seminar taught parents how to help keep their children safe on social media sites, while playing online games, and proper cell phone usage. The NCMEC also showed a safety video to the children who attended the event and also provided the children with special identification cards.

"This is a wonderful opportunity for us to partner with a national organization that is doing so much to educate the community about issues such as cell phone and social media safety for children," said Lupita Colmenero, Founder and President of Parents Step Ahead. "We believe this partnership will help us to continue fulfilling our mission of empowering parents to be proactive in their child's well-being."

Approximately 300 hundred families attended this free event that featured two seminars for parents, food donated by McDonald's, raffle prizes, and a community resource fair.

For more information about Parents Step Ahead, visit www.parentsstepahead.org.

About Parents Step Ahead

Parents Step Ahead is a 501-C3 nonprofit organization with a mission "to recognize, educate, enable and empower parents to take a proactive role in the educational and personal development of their children." The organization works in partnership with school districts, corporations and community organizations to offer a series of school-based programs for parents. Programs focus on ways parents and legal guardians can be involved in their child's life and the difference their involvement can make.

SOURCE Parents Step Ahead