{"id":13830,"date":"2026-06-19T10:03:23","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T15:03:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bluekc.com\/blueprint\/?p=13830"},"modified":"2026-06-26T10:12:05","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T15:12:05","slug":"2026-blue-kc-answering-the-call-honoree-kim-shirley-williams-month-of-june","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bluekc.com\/blueprint\/community-and-culture\/sports-partnerships-community-and-culture\/2026-blue-kc-answering-the-call-honoree-kim-shirley-williams-month-of-june\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 Blue KC Answering the Call Honoree Kim Shirley-Williams \u2013 Month of June"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Leaning on a Trusted Circle<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When you\u2019re in the military or serve as a first-responder, trust is a huge factor in your daily life. Military personnel have to trust the other people in their unit to execute their training so they can do what they\u2019re trained to do. For first responders, often their very lives depend on their partner having their back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s the basic premise of The Battle Within (TBW), an organization that helps former military personnel and first responders cope with the sometimes-hidden trauma of their careers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s so effective because they are putting like-minded people together,\u201d said Kim Shirley-Williams, a former participant and now a mentor for TBW. \u201cWe all experience similar things, so we innately know each other\u2019s stuff; nothing\u2019s really going to shock anybody. You have that trusted circle, and then you do have the mentors who are also from those professions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because of her advocacy, Shirley-Williams is the June recipient of the \u201cBlue KC Answering the Call\u201d award, sponsored by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City, benefitting The Battle Within.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shirley-Williams began her career with the Kansas City Police Department (KCPD) as a 9-1-1 call-taker in 1996. She moved into dispatch a year later, where some patrol officers encouraged her to do \u201cride-alongs.\u201d She decided to go through the police academy and ended up serving as a KCPD patrol officer for four years. From there, she moved into investigations. She retired from a 27-year career on the force in July 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That retirement lasted four days. She came back as a civilian wellness specialist and a peer support coordinator. She had been part of the peer support team since it began about 10 years ago, and that\u2019s where her heart was.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPeer support is important because you\u2019re not talking to a supervisor, necessarily,\u201d Shirley-Williams said. \u201cYou\u2019re talking to somebody who is your peer. Those peers are not therapists or clinicians, they\u2019re just people who care, who have gone through some additional training, and also have access to a bunch of resources.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In her role with peer support, she was always looking for resources that could help police officers deal with job-related stress. Recently, she partnered with KCPD emotional support K9 \u201cGracie.\u201d And after investigating The Battle Within, she was impressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou have to have resiliency and mental toughness in these roles, but you\u2019re also human,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen you see things that are horrible and not what you\u2019re supposed to ever see, you are going to have human reactions. We try to say, \u2018We want you to be tough when you need to be tough, but then when you step away from that horrible scene, now it\u2019s time to be human, and now it\u2019s time for us to take care of you.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But when Shirley-Williams went through a personal tragedy, she went from advocate of TBW to receiving help. Her 14-year-old son, Truman, died of suicide in 2023, and she found herself needing help. Her reaction was isolation, but she recognized that wouldn\u2019t work. She went through The Battle Within in November 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI had to take my own advice, and allow people to help me,\u201d she said. \u201cI had to learn how to ask for help, because my initial reaction was, \u2018I got this, I\u2019m tough, I\u2019m okay.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was not okay. I needed my people, and I needed therapy. Once I realized I couldn\u2019t do this by myself, I let people come in and help me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like a lot of the officers she helps in her peer-support role, Shirley-Williams knows that being tough doesn\u2019t mean you don\u2019t need help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t just go out and have drinks and get a slap on the back and say, \u2018Toughen up, buttercup. Now get over it.\u2019 How\u2019s that working? Now, we\u2019re better at proactively checking in with people, and we\u2019re better at reactively checking in with people after things happen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She knows that you never completely get over trauma, but her approach is even more about helping people deal with the trauma. And with her own personal trauma, she\u2019s also actively working on the prevention side. She volunteers at Children\u2019s Mercy mental health family advocacy programs and with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want this to happen to anybody else\u2019s family.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\n

Blue KC supports the Kansas City community through impactful sports partnership programs<\/h3>

Blue KC Answering the Call program<\/p> <\/div>\n

\n \n Learn More About the Program<\/a>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t
\r\n\r\n\t\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t

Was this helpful?<\/h3>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t\t\r\n \r\n \r\n
\r\n\t\t\t\t\r\n \r\n \r\n
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t