Meet Shawn Moore, LMSW

We were lucky to catch up with Shawn Moore, LMSW recently and have shared our conversation below.

Shawn, so good to have you with us today. We’ve always been impressed with folks who have a very clear sense of purpose and so maybe we can jump right in and talk about how you found your purpose?
As I look back over my adult life, I am in my 50’s, I have done a lot of different things that I believe set me up in finding my purpose. For me, I had my kids early in my life and really feel like I found my purpose through life events. I found myself with three children and single in my middle 30’s. I didn’t have a job at the time and started selling Mary Kay. I had a great mentor and subsequently a team that had fun and made money…. until we didn’t! I can remember having 20 bucks to my name thinking how in the world would I put food on the table and keep a roof over our head. The child support wasn’t coming in either. I reached out to a friend I knew who worked with the Kansas City Police Department where I ended up getting a job as a secretary. It was a great into the department and in just a few years I found myself going through the academy to become a police officer. The purpose at the time was to provide for my kids which that career afforded me the opportunity to do. I made it through the academy and became an officer. I was able to not worry about getting child support and even bought my first home on my own.

As someone who grew up being very shy in new situations and people this job got me out of my shell. I had to be able to communicate with all different types of people in varying situations. The skills I acquired on the job set me up to recognize and save my future husband’s life.

I met my current husband in 2013. He was medically retired after serving 23 years in the Army. We got married in 2015 and in 2017 I found myself trying to save him from a suicidal crisis. The ability to hon the gut feeling I got that day telling me that something was terribly wrong came from my time on the police department. You learn to pay attention to those gut feelings on calls for service. Many times, those gut feelings provided me the opportunity to catch the suspect and keep myself and my partner out of harms way.

I saved my husband’s life that day. He attempted suicide and thankfully, through my skills and God moments, we got to him in time to save his life. That same year I decided to start my own nonprofit and went back to school. I held on at the PD for two more years and then left as it wasn’t conducive to supporting my husband through his mental health challenges.

Through those experiences, I found my purpose. I truly believe that God does not give you trials and tribulations without the ability to come out on the other side. I also believe that if he brought you to it and through it, you are supposed to do something for good and use it to give back. After my husband’s attempt I saw the lack of support for the family members in situations such as this. The entire focus was on my husband. Not me nor my kids. We were traumatized that day, yet no one asked if we were alright or needed resources. No one gave me the tools to support my husband when he got out of the hospital. I made it my purpose to try and make sure that no one had to go through what I did without support. Caregivers on the Homefront, now Operation Frontline Families, was born that year. We have a mission to support the family members of veterans, service members, and frontline workers in their own mental health and wellness. To make sure I was putting our programs together appropriately I went back to college and got my Masters Degree in Social Work.

Was all this easy? NO, it was not. For me, it was about my purpose. Through the different life experiences, I found what that was. Seven years later as we work to support these families, it is the most important thing I have done, besides having my kids, in my life. Purpose breeds passion. Passion gives you reasons to not quit when things get tough. Find your purpose.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I am the Executive Director and Founder of Operation Frontline Families, formerly Caregivers on the Homefront. What I am most excited about at this time for our non-profit is our name change which occurred on January 1st. We still have the same mission, just with a new name that we hope is more inclusive to those that we support. Not everyone identifies as a caregiver, yet we want to make sure we are supporting these family members of veterans, service members, and frontline workers whether they see themselves as a caregiver or not.

We are in the growth stage and are continuing to grow in other areas of the country. We want to expand staff so we can reach more people. Yet we can’t do that without great support from our communities. This demographic keeps us safe; both globally and in our own backyards. They keep food on the grocery store shelves and take care of us when we are sick.

I am also an adjunct professor in the Social Work Department at Park University, where I graduated. It is very important for myself and our staff to give back to Park and this as well as having interns is one way we can do that. Many mental health professionals are not culturally compentent in the population that we support. If we can inpart this to new social workers this is one way we can help.

I love to advocate through working with legislators on policy that would best support these families, through speaking at conferences, and presenting to employee resource groups, other organizations and schools. One of the reasons why is this statistic that is so startling but one that most don’t know about. It was found that spouses who care for a veteran, 23.6% of them become suicidal after becoming a caregiver. The children in these caregiving homes are more isolated and have more behavior and emotional challenges.

At Operation Frontline Families we support these families through programs such as our trauma groups, Art on the Homefront, Homefront Hangout, Mental Health and Wellness Restorative Weekends, suicide prevention workshops and more. We provide Mental Health First Aid to these families as well as those in our communities that want to better support their own mental health and those around them.

We would love to support you or partner with you to provide programs for these family members!

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
The most impactful skills along my journey were the ability to speak to anyone no matter who they are, self care is a must when you are supporting others, and being vulnerable in sharing your story.

Start with baby steps. Like I said previously, I was the most shy kid you would ever know. I know my parents along with many I grew up with never believed I would be speaking on a national level to audiences of all sizes. Really, neither did I! But when it is something you believe in, it makes is so much easier to do.

Self care looks different to everyone. You have to find what works for YOU. For me, it is reading every night before bed and traveling for work and with friends. Human contact is so important along our journeys. You can’t do this life alone.

I have found that through sharing my story, it connects me to others, shows others that you too can overcome challenges, and it promotes post-traumatic growth. You never know who you are going to connect with and empower through your story.

Put yourselves in situations that are out of your comfort zone. Bring along a friend. Remember, we can’t do this life alone.

Okay, so before we go we always love to ask if you are looking for folks to partner or collaborate with?
In the non-profit world there is a big misnomer that we shouldn’t be profitable. Many grants and funders do not support operations to include personnel. For those of you in business, does that make sense? We cannot grow our programs and support more people unless we have more staff members and the ability to pay them to stay. This is one of the biggest challenges we have.

We need sponsors for our programs and events. We have a benefit concert coming up and need sponsors for food and beverages. We need people to attend! There are many different ways to get involved in supporting these family members which you can find on our website at operationfrontlinefamilies.org.

Are you a local hotel, restaurant, beverage company, wellness provider? We need you to help us with our events. Are you a corporation or local business that wants to give back. We need you to sponsor our mental health programs.

We also need you to spread the word about our organization. Does your business or organization want to invest in your employees mental health? Reach out to us to facilitate Mental Health First Aid. Are you in human resources? Reach out to us for training on how best to support caregivers in your employment.

Volunteering is one way you can help us as well and of course monetary donations are always welcome!

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