By Kathryn Rice

“For nearly three decades, Domestic Violence Awareness Month (DVAM) has been observed nationally in October as an opportunity to bring light to the issue of domestic violence and its effects on victims, survivors, families and communities,” according to the website.

In Maryville and the five-county region of Nodaway, Atchison, Holt, Gentry and Worth, North Star Advocacy Center provides assistance and resources for domestic violence victims. The center depends on volunteers, interns and paid staff to provide these services.

Three of the current victim advocates started their careers as interns. North Star works with Northwest Missouri State University to provide internships to students in major studies requiring them.

After 15 years…

Meghann Kosman, who was a child and family studies major with a sociology minor, walked into the then Children and Family Center of Northwest Missouri in September 2009. By 2010, she had started her department-required internship. At this point she hadn’t planned to pursue a career in domestic violence response.

She started work as a part-time, on-call advocate when the center’s staff wrote for and received a new grant in 2012. She worked into a full-time employee. Kosman has worked under the Victims of Crime Act grant. Besides working as a victim advocate, she is the volunteer coordinator, in charge of sexual assaults and does a lot of public policy work.

Kosman credits her career decision to the first time she went to court to watch an order of protection be requested. The victim was a female and her husband had punched out her two front teeth. The order of protection was not awarded.

“So watching the failure of the justice system made me angry,” Kosman said, “I didn’t want to be just angry, I wanted to do something. That anger turned into passion and love for the field.”

Uplifting surroundings

Wyatt Williams served as an intern during his junior year in 2020. After graduation, he tried different jobs. As he was looking for another transition, the full-time victim advocate job came open. Within the first month in February 2022, the atmosphere at North Star, which was so different from the other places he had worked, convinced him of this career choice.

“It was free flowing, you are able to work at tasks at your own pace,” he said. “You’re able to help clients overcome issues. The mission as an organization is very hopeful and uplifting. You can actively see the lives of your clients changing and this makes the community a safer and better place to live.”

She came back

Julia Day, a human service major with a criminology minor, interned at North Star during the summer of 2018. She graduated in December 2018, worked a full-time position at the job center and part-time at North Star as an on-call advocate covering the shelter at night. In July 2019, she was offered a North Star full-time advocate and volunteer coordinator position. In 2020, she moved to St. Joseph where she still lives and resigned.

She went back to work as a volunteer in 2022 and was offered a part-time on-call advocate, crisis intervention, hospital advocacy at Mosaic in St. Joseph, where she meets Maryville clients who travel to St. Joseph. She also helps lead client groups at North Star. Day is currently finishing grad school online at Webster University, St. Louis. She will have a masters in counseling with an emphasis in mental health.

“Every day is different depending on what is going on,” Kosman said. “One phone call can change the whole day.”

North Star has internships available and is always looking for interns. Northwest students can go through their faculty advisors.

“Interns don’t have to do this for a career,” Kosman said. “It is good experience because you will always work with people where domestic or sexual violence has affected someone. It also betters our jury pool to have people who understand the dynamics of sexual or domestic violence.”

North Star past interns and volunteers have gone to medical school and law school. Many have pursued case manager positions in Children’s Division, nursing homes, mental health facilities, group homes, department of social services, community action, United Way, homeless shelters and as educators. Many pursue counseling in various fields. A couple have gone on to a city to be victim advocates.

“We also love getting volunteers from the community,” Kosman said. “You do not have to be a Northwest student. We have volunteers in the community who work at The Ministry Center, who worked on the radio, who are retired and who are active teachers.”

Interns and volunteers learn soft skills in business and academic skills are picked up; how to deal with people and to be punctual, communicate effectively.

“It takes a lot of being outside your comfort zone and being challenged,” Williams said.

“Public policy work has taught me how to be a good spokesperson for our organization,” Kosman said. “It’s taught me how to navigate difficult conversations with people who have fundamental understanding of issues with different viewpoints in how to solve the issues.”

“It’s important to intern at North Star because they pour into you to be the best version you can be,” Day said. “They invest in you. North Star is such a special place. Now that I’m branching out to other mental health areas, not everyone has a healthy work environment where they are appreciated.

“No matter what you do in the mental health field you’re going to run into domestic violence and sexual assault.”