Project Lifesaver

Project Lifesaver® Inc., DBA Project Lifesaver® International, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with offices in Virginia and Florida that trains, certifies and equips local law enforcement, rescue and other public safety agencies throughout North America and beyond in expedited search and rescue (SAR) for children and adults in their communities who are prone to wandering or eloping due to autism, dementia, Down syndrome, brain injury and other cognitive conditions.

Project Lifesaver® was founded as a local initiative in 1999 in Chesapeake, Virginia, by Gene Saunders, then a captain at Chesapeake Police Department and chief of the SAR unit at Chesapeake Sheriff’s Office. Currently composed of more than 1,800 active member agencies and with more than 4,500 reported rescues under the collective belt, Project Lifesaver has since gained traction as the most effective and widely used solution of its kind and the recognized leader in dementia-, autism- and special needs-specific SAR protocol. Project Lifesaver works for ground-based and both manned and unmanned airborne searches. And unlike the technologies supporting alternative commercial devices designed to help protect people at risk in other ways, the Project Lifesaver radio-frequency (RF) technology works in cases and places where GPS, cellular and other signals and technologies can be compromised or misleading or simply will not work.

Since its very first rescue in Hampton Roads, Virginia, Project Lifesaver has pioneered, expanded and evolved to become the leading force in search and rescue for people prone to wandering due to cognitive conditions and continues to set the industry standard it established decades ago as the first of its kind.

Learn more about Project Lifesaver at www.ProjectLifesaver.org.