BUFFALO, N.Y. — When a child goes missing, a community mobilizes, but sometimes they don’t know that child is missing in the first place. That's something that especially impacts Black communities.

For the Griffin family, it hits home.

“He went out and never returned home,” said Brian Griffin, Jaylen Griffin's father.

August 4, 2020, was the last time 12-year-old Jaylen’s family saw him.

“Jaylen would always come on whatever happened. He's gonna call his mother. He was a mama's boy,” Brian explained.

When he didn’t, they knew something was wrong, but no alerts went out.

“We waited the 48 hours and for some reason or another they had him listed as a runaway,” Brian said.

That means, no Amber Alert would be issued.

“It was a very difficult time,” Brian recalled.

So, amid their own physical and emotional struggles, his family did what they could.

“We rode the streets for maybe a week, week and a half, almost two weeks straight,” Brian said.

While the community rallied, the Griffins felt the authorities let them down.

“I don't want to say it's a racial thing, but I do think race did play a part of this matter,” Brian added.

“Because if it was a different color child they wouldn't be...,” added Breana Griffin, Jaylen's sister.

“Exactly,” Brian agreed.

“We've got all of these pictures of these kids here that they've been missing for years and nothing is being done about it,” said community organizer Dontaya Davis, sitting in front of a table full of missing notices.

That's why Davis is doing something.

“The Amber Alert — there's so many stipulations," Davis explained. "If you were missing over 24 hours, if there was a car involved, between the ages of, what it stops at 18 years old, right? The Ebony Alert would change all of that.”

This new alert would go out for missing Black women and children, from ages 12 to 25. It’s where most of the disparity in coverage is.

“Just me posting on Facebook or someone else [saying], 'hey, have you seen my family member,' is not enough," Davis added. "Let's flash their face across the screen. Let's put them on the billboard. Let's have that [...] alarming sound from your phone.”

For Davis, a mom herself, and the cousin of kids who have gone missing, this issue hits home.

“If we do this, the predators will know that they're doing something about it and maybe stop," she said. "Maybe we'll find some of these kids that have been taken and reunite them with their families.”

An Ebony Alert system went into place in California on January 1. Since then, 22 alerts have been issued and 13 of those missing people were found, according to California Sen. Steven Bradford’s office.

“You shouldn't have to do it alone,” Davis said.

Davis has an ongoing petition and is in talks with local politicians about the Ebony Alert.

A proposed bill by former state senator Tim Kennedy didn't have any other sponsors and was stricken when he left that office.

“What I was told is it can take a while,” Davis said.

She’s fueled by the faces of those missing people.

“We're at 107 Sheffield, where my son Jaylen was found deceased in the attic,” said Brian sitting on the porch of a Buffalo house. 

There’s no taking back what happened to Jaylen, and so the Griffin family is only left with the “what ifs.”

“[The Ebony Alert] would have changed a lot," said Breana.

"I believe, truly speaking, [there] was more of a great possibility that Jaylen will be home with us,” added Brian.

As they find closure in one chapter, and now continue their journey to find justice, they believe this Ebony Alert might alleviate another family’s heartache.

“I just hope that it goes through and that it actually be considered at least, so any other parents or family members won't have to go through the grief that we're going through as of right now," said Brian.

Buffalo Police officials say a lot of resources went into Jaylen’s case and they take all of these individual cases seriously.