"Making America Safe For All Children." That's the slogan of the Polly Klaas Foundation, working for more than a decade to help locate missing and endangered kids and to help their families coordinate efforts with law enforcement agencies nationwide. Named in memory of Polly Klaas, a northern California girl abducted and killed in 1993, Foundation staff and volunteers work ceaselessly to help children and families in trouble — and to ensure the safety of future generations of youngsters. At the Foundation's headquarters in Petaluma, California, a powerful FileMaker Pro database system maintains essential case files.

Customer Benefits

With easier access to data, Foundation caseworkers are able to do their work far more efficiently than when they had to struggle with makeshift solutions. "We can do our casework in much less time," notes Cindy. "We have everything right in front of us, we don't have to flip through files, and it's so much better for the families. We're able to get statistical information and reports in ways we never dreamed we'd be able to do."

The Foundation's Petaluma office has only 8 fulltime staffers and only two and a half regular caseworkers. These efficiencies really make a difference where it counts, ensuring that case information is always up to date, and always ready to be shared when law enforcement officials call. "I really like FileMaker Pro's search features, which really help us with our follow–up work," Cindy adds. "We can type in whatever missing–children follow–ups are scheduled for this date, or three months down the road, and the list comes up right away."

We can do our casework in much less time. We have everything right in front of us, we don't have to flip through files, and it's so much better for the families. We're able to get statistical information and reports in ways we never dreamed we'd be able to do.

— Cindy Rudometkin, Response Department Manager, Polly Klaas Foundation

Cindy's enthusiasm for FileMaker Pro has led her to explore learning development for herself, and with a training course under her belt, she's already looking for ways to put that new skill to work. "I've created a whole new database for our information and referral calls, which is everything other than child reports," she says. "It could deal with sex offender information, custody information, or child abuse information. We were able to import over 700 referrals that we give out often to families who call or people in need who call. We have those all imported into this database so we can do a lookup and give out data for whatever type of agency they need."

With only a year of FileMaker Pro use to look back on, Cindy is already looking ahead to future improvements, future enhancements, and future expansion of the system. "We'll definitely upgrade to future versions of FileMaker Pro as they become available," she enthuses. "It's got everything we need right now, but I can't wait for it to get better!"