Missing Persons Advocacy Network
The Unmissables
Each year, over 40,000 people are reported missing to Australian police. While most are found within a week, over 400 remain missing long-term.
Daniel O’Keeffe’s disappearance in 2011 prompted his sister, Loren, to leave her job and start the biggest campaign of its kind: Dan Come Home. Through regular media coverage and nationwide attention, the search for Dan highlighted several gaps in Australia for missing persons and those left behind.
As other families in a similar situation began to contact Loren for advice and support, Loren decided to establish Missing Persons Advocacy Network (MPAN) in 2013.
SenateSHJ is a proud partner of MPAN.
MPAN's exists to create awareness of long-term missing persons, provide support to families and advocate for a better understanding and recognition of missing person's in Austraila. This is why MPAN began The Unmissables coffee cup campaign. The campaign is a modern-day twist on the well-known stark, grainy photos on milk cartons that often depicted individuals as cases rather than people. The campaign, spanning the length of National Missing Persons Week, is the result of families collaborating with artists and writers to create specific, heartfelt portraits of missing loved ones and giving the public an opportunity to engage.
In 2019, the stories of eight missing people were told. MPAN distributed 100,000 biodegradable coffee cups via cafes across Australia for National Missing Persons Week (4–10 August 2019). We ran a pop-up café in Sydney's Martin Place. The campaign was also a feature of Round 20 of the Australian Football League at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
The Unmissables coffee cup campaign received media coverage nationwide.
Here is a snapshot of what we heard:
- 'Missing persons cold cases are being spotlighted by Australian art project The Unmissables', ABC
- 'Where is Tej? A devastated father hopes solution lies in a coffee cup', The Sydney Morning Herald
- ''Not knowing hurts': Mum's agonising search for her only son', 10 Daily
- 'Coffee-cup quest to find the missing', The West Australian
- 'Where's Marty? Missing man in coffee cup campaign', ABC
- ''We have no answers': The search for Melbourne teen Tej Chitnis', 9 News
In 2020, SenateSHJ were announced the winners of the CommsCon Pro Bono Award for our work with the Missing Persons Advocacy Network. Specifically, for our work in the Unmissables campaign during the 2019 National Missing Persons Week.
The judges described the campaign as ‘a simple, effective and impactful campaign that leveraged Australian everyday behaviour to share real emotive stories’.
We are proud to support and work with Loren and MPAN in raising awareness of Missing Persons in Australia.