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Nikki Pastor

HNRS 0222: Community Service

Dr. Rich Shur

15 May, 2020

Reflection Paper

For my honors contract, I worked with the Moral Injury Institute to help build a website

MII is a non-profit organization based in Springfield whose mission is to spread awareness about

moral injury and to build a care network for veterans who may be affected by it. The

organization also focuses on other populations who can also be affected by moral injuries such as

healthcare providers, policemen, and victims of trauma. I had weekly meetings with the director,

Dr. Tommy Goode, to update him on the progress of the website and we worked together

deciding what the website needed.

The purpose of the website was to provide people a source of what is the MII and

information about moral injury. It was also a place for people to donate to MII. My first step

before making the website was to look at other non-profit websites and see how they set up their

websites. The main things they had in common were an about page, a contact page, an

information page, an internship/volunteer page, and a donation page. Then I looked up tutorials

on how to navigate the website builder, Word press. I also looked up tutorials on how to build a

nonprofit website. I was mostly worried about making a website that was appealing to visitors

and that can be easily navigated through. So, I looked up proper color schemes and how to make

a clean website. When I began working on the website, I learned that a lot of the experience was

something I had to learn on my own.

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The first thing I learned was that themes on WordPress are not flexible and when finding

a theme, you had to settle for one that met the requirements of most of what you wanted, not all.

Navigating the website builder was difficult and frustrating, but I learned to manage the small

details. Tommy and I came up with 13 pages of what the website needed. The pages include

information about networks, projects, moral injury, the Moral Injury Institute, involvement, and

resources. I did put a link that directed people to a donation site, however, I did not complete the

actual donation page on the site. I did achieve my goal of allowing the website to be a place

where people have access to donating to MII.

The website is at the bare minimum since the theme limits a lot of personalization that I

wanted the website to have. There is the possibility of adding more images on the website and

allowing it the design to stand out more. I have no background in website design or how to

effectively layout text and images to where they appeal to viewers. A person with a more website

design background can help optimize the number of viewers the website has and any technical

issues concerning it. I know the website has helped a lot with solidifying the goals of MII. There

are some pages on the website that have very basic information that can be elaborated on in the

future. These pages include the Veteran’s Care Network, the Clergy Focus Group, the Writing

Seminar, and the Research Project. The Resources page could also be elaborate on, the more

resources the public has relating to moral injury the better. The Donation page needs to be

finished setting up. Further developments of the donation page are to link a donation plugin into

the website and allow viewers to have an easy and secure way to donate. The website lacks a

testimonial section on the home page and any information in the research project. I was not able

to address these sections because the MII and I have not collected any resources for these pages.
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The website helped me see the goals and missions that MII has and I hope that it also

helps MII become more solidified as an organization. The pages that could be elaborated on,

such as the Veteran’s Care Network and Clergy Focus Group, are examples of areas that MII can

focus on solidifying. Like what resources are available in the Veteran’s Care Network and what

can people expect when being involved in the Clergy Focus Group. Since MII is still a new

non-profit organization, I hope that the website is not a place for information and donations but

helps guide MII as a non-profit organization. A person with a background in communication can

also help with the website by organizing MII's central goals and communicating them to the

community in a way that helps MII grow as an organization.

I wanted to work with the Moral Injury Institute because I did not know what I wanted to

do in the future and I thought if I volunteered in the community, I can gain experience and learn

what I like and don’t like. Working with MII and Tommy helped me open my eyes to the

veterans that live in Springfield and the lingering effects that occur when someone experiences

trauma. Attending the networking meetings with Tommy helped me experience firsthand the

communities' effort to help veterans and their families and people who are in end-of-life care.

This semester I took Ethics of Healthcare and it tied into the work of MII. In the class, we talked

about moral injury amongst physicians and the lack of appropriate end of life care. All these

topics related to the work of MII and it was interesting to see the class in a real-world setting. I

would sometimes talk to Tommy about what I learn in that class and we would discuss how

those topics relate to his work and the health care in Springfield.

I have enjoyed working with the MII and I am glad that my honors contract project was

able to help non-profit organizations. Working with MII had made me realize that I do enjoy
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working with non-profit organizations and I hope I will be able to work with more in the future.

Future updates are needed for the website, but I hope it helps solidify MII goals and helps it

grow in the community. Working on the project has been enjoyable for me and has helped me

clarify what I want in the future