Her Campus: Hi Katherine! You are a fellow Her Campus member, and I would love to talk to you about the non-profit organization you worked at this summer, if that’s alright?
Katherine Lenger: Yeah, of course!
HC: What is the name of this non-profit you worked for, and where was it based?
KL: Its called MOCSA, which stands fo metropolitan organization to counter sexual assault. It is in the Kansas City Metropolitan area.
HC: Could you generally explain how this organization counters sexual assault?
KL: Yeah, I was a part of an advocacy team that does legal advocacy. They will break a lease if a client feels unsafe in their home because of a perpetrator knowing where they live. We also do orders of protection, sort of like restraining orders, where we will go to the court house with clients to file those. We have emergency funding for groceries, first months rent and a lot of other programs. For therapy we do individual and group therapy with kids and adults. Additionally, we have an education team that goes out to schools and talks about bystander intervention, LGBTQ+ awareness, and sexual assault and harassment awareness. They also go to corporate offices and give presentations about workplace harassment.
HC: What projects and/or work in particular did you do with MOCSA?
KL: I was on the advocacy team and the crisis line. I had two crisis line shifts a week where I would support people who needed help and would assist them in getting into therapy or advocacy services. On the advocacy team, we would get calls to go to the hospital specifically for people who had come in requesting a rape kit. We would go to the hospital with fresh clothes, toiletries and information about services. I went to about 10 over the summer. We would get an average of 3 or 4 calls from the hospital a day.
HC: It sounds like your team does a lot of amazing work. Would MOCSA respond to other calls as well?
KL: Yes. An example particularly relating to the hospital is if a person comes into the hospital with any type of sexual trauma, the hospital immediately calls MOCSA.
HC: That seems like very eye-opening and meaningful work. What would you say was the most impactful experience you had or the most impactful part of your job?
KL: I took a lot of calls getting people into therapy and some of the time people would call who were emotionally distressed. That was really hard sometimes. Calls from people who were emotionally distressed were the most draining calls. But at the end of the call they would say things like thank you for believing me and I will pray for you. The most rewarding part was seeing how listening and talking to someone could change their day.
HC: Well, thank you so much Katherine for sharing your experience with me. I am amazed with the work you did.
KL: Thank you! I love MOCSA and am glad I got to talk to you about being a part of it!