In June 2026, Lily Morrighan, Founder/Facilitator of Harvest Moon Healing, moves into her role as the Community Engagement Liaison at OVS. Read her story to gain insight into our potential impact on clients – impacts we may never see.
Content Warning: This post references homicide
Right now, as I prepare to share my story with you, I am outside in the spring setting sun, fat bumble bees are navigating the breeze, birds chirp and sing, and children play in their yards. It is hard not to feel hope unfurling, much like the ferns are doing now on the squishy forest floor. In this spirit of hope and new beginnings, I would like to share a short story with you that may help you recognize the positive impacts you make as a professional, even if you are not there to witness it.
This particular short story begins in December 2018, when my brother was murdered. It was just 12 days before Christmas that his body was found in the river of our small Adirondack town. It was during this time that my family and I learned of the Office of Victim Services (OVS). We had such an amazing Crime Victim Advocate who was attached to the State Troopers that was handling the incident. It was through her that we found out what could be helped with, and she kept us on track with the next steps while we bumbled around in our trauma fog. I inherited my brother’s dog after he died, and the trauma therapist I worked with compensated me through OVS and worked to get my dog assigned as an emotional support animal. It was this key combination that made it so I could stay in school and get my Bachelor of Social Work as planned before the crime.
Fast forward 3 years, and I buried my mom after she was diagnosed with a brain tumor and died 6 months later. One year after recovering from the most immediate grief, I went back to school for my Master of Social Work, when lo and behold, the school placed me at OVS for my internship. I learned about National Crime Victim Rights Week, the Victims of Crime Act, unstable funding, and the Sexual Offense Evidence Collection Kit storage facility. I saw some of what goes into making it so the survivors like me can receive support and services. This was when I learned OVS has an Advisory Council with survivor member seats. When applications opened, I applied and was offered a seat! In these last three years as chair of the Survivor Committee, I have advocated and secured three more survivor seats and presently have been serving as the first Survivor member to hold a Co-President position. It has been such a privilege to bring my lived experience to the table and allow myself to be fully witnessed.
My next step in this strange path is stepping down from the Council to work for OVS as the incoming Community Engagement Liaison. At the same time, I will be starting my PhD Social Work Program in the fall! Life has unfolded such that it feels like this next chapter is when all of me gets to be integrated into the whole. To explore what it means to me to hold my survivorship public-facing alongside my career.
I share this with all you wonderful strangers because I still find it easy to silence myself; it is easier to believe no one wants to hear my story. That there is nothing special about my journey. But, I know that is a lie, it is special because I never could have imagined what an integral part OVS would become in my life. Nor could I have known that the colleagues I would meet through the council I would come to love and admire. I also share this with you because I see a story of hope in this. The advocate and therapist who worked with me during that dark time do not get to see me as I am now, but their love and attention helped get me here. I guess I hope you know in your body, beyond the rational mind, that the human connections you make in your work lay the foundations for survivors to build something out of the rubble.