MOCADSV is Missouri’s sole provider of domestic and sexual violence technical assistance and education. Domestic and sexual violence service providers, operating with limited budgets, rely heavily on the no-cost expertise and training from MOCADSV. With the purchase of its building in 2010, MOCADSV opened a training center to host project workgroups, statewide trainings, and coordination meetings. This centralized location has allowed MOCADSV to offer more statewide training events for its members. MOCADSV also continued its Directors’ Academy series, which focuses on specific skill-building in the areas of administration and management, finance, communications, service provision best practices, and fund development for new directors of victim service programs.

In 2020 at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, MOCADSV shifted to virtual services and education opportunities. We expanded our reach across Missouri, and more advocates were able to attend training and meetings through online platforms like Zoom. From March 2020 to March 2021, 18,546 participants logged 927,011 Zoom meeting minutes and 4,326 Zoom meetings. That’s an average of more than 11 meetings a day.

In 2021, MOCADSV created Advocates’ Academy, a 48-hour foundational eLearning course that places the day-to-day work of advocacy within the broader movement to end rape and abuse.

MOCADSV remains the only organization in Missouri that collects data and information on all of the services provided by domestic and sexual violence programs. These Monthly Services Reports—collected on domestic violence since the early 1980s and sexual assault since 2008—provide information on the services sought and provided each month by community-based programs to women, children, and men who are victimized by domestic and sexual violence.

MOCADSV is recognized nationally and internationally for its innovation in tackling the chronic questions and problems faced by local advocates in providing services to survivors. MOCADSV’s Shelter Rules Project has been replicated by programs around the U.S. and globally, and has been highlighted at several international conferences.

MOCADSV’s public policy work is guided by the refrain “We Change Laws. We Change Lives.” For over 40 years, MOCADSV has successfully advocated for state and federal laws and policies that address rape and abuse. Our public policy work has been—and will always be—focused on the needs of survivors and supporting the service providers that assist them.

Since its beginning, MOCADSV has worked to ensure advocates and allied professionals have the tools and resources they need to change lives. MOCADSV fosters a sense of pride in being part of something significant and constructive. MOCADSV continues to unite Missourians to be a part of positive social change, with the knowledge that no one has to confront, manage, or cope with violence alone.

In 1976, the first domestic violence shelter opened its doors in Missouri. Four years later, the Missouri Adult Abuse Remedies Law was passed, which created the first legal protections for domestic violence victims and required that law enforcement officers respond to domestic violence crimes in the same way the law required them to respond to crimes between other persons. An informal group of advocates created the Missouri Coalition Against Domestic Violence (MCADV) to formalize the relationships established after the passage of the Missouri Adult Abuse Remedies Law. MCADV began as a network of individuals and organizations “concerned with domestic violence and the abuse of women.”

MCADV officially became incorporated on August 18, 1981, as a non-profit membership organization comprised of community-based domestic violence agencies throughout Missouri. Since then, the number of member agencies has grown from a handful to 124, representing more than 20,000 advocates and volunteers across the state. These members represent almost all of the domestic violence and sexual assault victim services providers in Missouri, as well as law enforcement agencies, prosecutors, courts, and other allied victim service professionals.

In December 2005, the Board of Directors voted unanimously to expand the Coalition’s mission and membership to address both sexual and domestic violence, stalking, and dating violence. On April 3, 2006, this mission expansion was formalized through Bylaws changes to include sexual assault in the organization’s mission.

In 2021, MOCADSV staff and the Board of Directors decided to officially change our acronym from MCADSV to MOCADSV in order to maintain consistency across our social media platforms and to eliminate any confusion with other state coalitions.