The importance of community partnerships

As a parent, could you ever imagine the thought of your child going missing. To just disappear! Every year this is a reality for more than 40,000 parents; as reports for this many missing children are taken by police services across Canada.

Mac’s Convenience Stores recognizes the critical importance partnerships play in the prevention of crime to maintain public safety; and the positive impact such collaborative actions can have on protecting the vital interests of a community. This commitment to community safety is the cornerstone of their corporate responsibility and philosophy of Crime Prevention Through Community Engagement.

With approximately 1,600 stores in communities large and small across Canada, the Mac’s store presence can help extend the reach of disseminating critical information to the public in a timely fashion. With this in mind, Mac's Convenience Stores partnered with MissingKids.ca back in 2012 to display MissingKid Alerts on their in-store digital media screens across Canada.

To mark International Missing Children’s Day in May 2014; Mac’s Convenience Stores stood with representatives from the Canadian Centre for Child Protection’s MissingKids.ca program, Toronto Police Chief William Blair and members of the Toronto Police Service to create a partnership in helping bring Canada’s missing children home.

In addition to creating awareness of missing children, starting in May-until the end of August, Mac’s Convenience Stores will be encouraging their customers to donate spare change at the counter of any Mac’s store in Ontario to support the work of MissingKids.ca.

With the help of their media network provider, iSign Media Corporation, Mac’s have developed a Public Service Announcement which will play on the digital media screens and store staff will also be wearing promotional buttons, which were provided by MissingKids.ca to remind our customers of this fundraiser.

Keeping children safe should be a priority for everyone; teaming up with MissingKids.ca and the Toronto Police Service in achieving this goal shows the continued dedication Mac’s has towards community safety.

By working together and creating awareness, Mac’s is doing their part to ensure more children are safely located and returned home.