Meet Courtney: Case Manager

In this episode, Devon and Sarah-Jane chatted with Courtney Brooks, Case Manager, Employment and Social Services for the Municipality of Chatham-Kent.

As usual, talking about someone's career journey led to some great nuggets of information.

Here are some of the highlights:

• Using transfer credits to choose a university program so that it takes less time and costs less
• Finding the balance of competency at work and being challenged enough to land in the sweet spot of job satisfaction
• Using skills in ways you didn't expect - like using teaching, coaching and mentoring skills in a case management capacity, perhaps
• The struggles parents have to understand their kids' education options when the options are so different and more varied than they used to be
• Understanding that evolving as a person might make you better equipped to take on your dream role later in life, rather than landing in it as quickly as possible.
• The disconnect between high school courses and real work

Enjoy!

Transcript

Welcome to The One About Careers with Devon and Sarah-Jane, a career podcast for adults involved with teens navigating life after high school. We help you help your teens make informed education and career decisions by providing quality information and resources. Join us for weekly, bite -sized conversations covering various aspects of careers, including insights from professionals and different fields. New episodes available every week at theoneaboutcareers.com.

Welcome to the One About Careers. It's Sarah-Jane and Devon. And we're continuing
our series of interviewing real people who have real jobs. So Devon who's decided to
grace us with their presence today. Today we are chatting with Courtney Brooks, who
is a case manager with employment and social services with the municipality of
Chatham Kent. Hi, Courtney. Hi. Hi,
Courtney. I'm going to start with the obvious. What the heck is a case manager?
Like, are you, are you carrying suitcases? Like? No, no, files. File.
Electronic file. No, No, I am a suitcase size electronic file. That's right.
I issue social assistance benefits for Ontario Works recipient for the municipality of
Chatham Kent.
So I manage ongoing eligibility for social assistance benefits. And I specialize in
helping
participants apply for the Ontario Disability Support Program.
Cool. So are you mostly working with
people who have disabilities? The clients that I work with do have an identified
health issue and their health issue may last longer than a 24 -month period at what
point they can apply for the Ontario Disabilities Support Program. So I helped them
through that. - So Courtney, then how did you get to where you are now? What's kind
of generally been your career path? - Yeah, so it took me a while to find this
career path or this employment opportunity. So when I was finished high school, I
took the early childhood education program at Lampton College and worked in the early
childhood education field for about two and a half years. And I thought, you know
what, this is what I'm going to do forever. But after, you know, that two year
time period, I started to notice I was having issues with my back. I would like
the opportunity to be able to make more of an income than I was at that point.
And so I decided to go back to school.
And when I was looking into which program I wanted to take in school, there was
not a lot of guidance, to be honest. So I went with what's going to get me the
most transfer credits, so I could be done this fast enough. And that led me to a
bachelor of arts in psychology.
And even with that, when I was done, it was like, what are you going to do?
There's no real career path there's no like oh this is your next steps. So I
worked in child protection for a period of two years after university and realized
that is not for me. I was at the point my career there where I was the next to
be offered permanent and I thought no I can't do this. So I left and went back to
early childhood education. And I licensed in home child care for a period of time
for an organization in Sarnia, which was a great opportunity.
But still, I was at that,
that pay where it's just, you needed another source of income, right? Like it wasn't
enough to sustain a long term, the long term goals I had. So When I was actually
working at Children's Aid, one of my co -workers had been hired for the Ontario
Works Office in Starnia -Lampton, and I thought, "Oh, that might be something I could
do long -term, you know, and that might be something I would like." And so there
was an Ontario Works Directives course. It was an online course offered through
Lampton College, like a continuing education program. So I enrolled and did that
course, added it to my resume, and And a career posting came up with the
Municipality of Chatham-Kent, which is where I am from. I'm from Wallaceburg, which is
kind of in between Sarnia and Chatham, so I could go either way. And so I applied and
I was successful in getting this role, which was wonderful. And now,
since I've been in my organization, I've been here 16 years now. So I've had a lot
of opportunities
within my department. I've been a general Ontario works case manager and then I went
into a housing stability worker program
for about six or seven years, where my role was to help low income seniors maintain
their housing by reducing the barriers that I have to live independently
or by making their housing more affordable. So a lot of that was connecting to like
health supports and landlord tenant mediation and that kind of stuff. And I found I
really, really, really loved the health aspect of that job, loved it.
But I got very frustrated and very, it kind of emotionally drained with the lack of
support with the housing crisis that we're having in the country. So when the
opportunity came up for an Ontario Works case manager helping people apply for
disability, I thought, oh, that would really marry what I like about the health
field and the Ontario Works program, that would marry really well.
And I thought I would really like it. And I've been doing this job for three or
four years now and I really, really love it, love it, love it. So Courtney,
what do you, you've really shared, I love that you were saying, you know, you're
aware of what your frustrations were, and there was the golden nuggets of the health
piece. And so this position gave you an opportunity to kind of Mary,
the things that you loved in terms of helping people and the health aspect, what do
you think has surprised you about this work that you're doing now?
Honestly, I think the most surprising thing is that no two files are ever the same
no two client situations are ever the same like after 16 years you would think you
would come in you know at eight o 'clock and just know what you're doing for the
day but there's always different changes and developments and things that make me
stop and think hmm I need to see how we're going to fit this in with our
legislation and what I can really do to help out this client um and I really enjoy
you know finding unique answers to situations or helping develop programming that will
help our clients. Awesome. Do you know that like one of the key things to
satisfaction is that we're doing something that we're competent in and it stretches
us just a teeny tiny bit. So it's not like a ginormous leap but it does require
us to stretch a little bit whether that's emotionally or intellectually or
technologically as the case may be to to to accomplish something and so it's very
it's not like you're you're settled it is that in fact that that oh I got it like
there's a new little challenge here that I've got to figure out and I don't mean
to say little because what Courtney's actually doing is resolving issues for
individuals so that they are now in a in a situation where they are safe.
So you mentioned that you, it took you sort of a while to find this place for
Yale. If you think back to like being a teenager, what did you want to be then?
What was sort of your perception then of what grown -up courting was gonna be? I
thought that I was going to be a primary school teacher. And I think I was always
good with kids. I enjoyed being around them. And I was always,
you know, I was the helper when I was in school. I was always babysitting, doing
all of those things. And so it was just, I don't know, I thought I would be a
teacher if everybody just said you should be a teacher. So then I thought I would
be a teacher.
Yeah. Yeah, yeah Do you find you use? Sorry got there first, ha! Do you use any of
those kinds of skills? Like do you feel like you're you have a sort of teaching
coaching mentoring piece to what you 100 % yeah I think a lot of what I do is
coaching mentoring Guiding a lot of it helping people find resources that they need
making suggestions, you know, that kind of thing. So I do think, yeah,
there's an aspect of that. So my question is, you went from high school to do ECE.
You didn't do the leap to teacher. And then when you went back to, when you went
to university, you did a BA. You didn't even do a teaching degree then.
And this isn't a criticism. This is a curiosity about, So what happened sort of
through that time, again, because it's curious and people's journeys are so
fascinating, Devin, I think. - Yeah, I think that working in ECE,
I was, I loved it, but I was tired at the end of the day. That's a physical job.
And I thought,
how would I,
I knew I wanted to have a family of my own. How would I be able to do that all
day and then come home and be present for my family? And that was a struggle for
me and a lot of my friends are teachers and I see that the work that they bring
home at the end of the day and into the weekends and stuff. And that just wasn't
for me. And when I am done work at the end of the day, sure sometimes we think
about our participants and oh, how could I have handled this differently? But I
don't have any work to do at night. And I really like being present for my family,
and the other things that I enjoy. Yeah, yeah. And what was that?
So you didn't take the leap from university, sorry, from high school to university.
What made you go to college instead, right at that point? - Well,
I did not take advanced classes. I had a difficult time with math and took general
in math and there was not a lot of guidance. And so I just thought I had to go
to college, honestly. I'd never thought I would have the opportunity to go to
university because I wasn't strong in those subjects, so oh so you're not alone this
we hear this all the time from people all the time and and and it often is around
math isn't it Devon? People like, I wasn't good at math, and now they're doing a job
that seriously involves math yeah i was just mind yeah yeah yeah it's it's it's
very interesting there's a there's a significant disconnect i think between sort of
what is studied in high school and i'm not belittling it i'm just saying it's an
interesting observation that how it relates to life after high school,
there seems to be a disconnect there. So that's not uncommon. I find a challenge a
lot of people run into as well is there are so many options. Of course, you're in
Ontario and in Ontario in particular, the the way the college system is structured,
there are a lot of options now for you to get the credits you need to apply to
university through colleges, through continuing education through like there's so many
things, they wouldn't necessarily have been there when you were at that age. But I
find the challenges, you know, if you have parents who are in like their 50s and
60s and they're dealing with 13 and 20 something kids, they don't know what those
options are because they weren't there when they were that age right so it
consistently is a problem, like there are tons of things you could have done to
almost was a stop gap, quote unquote, to get those credits and apply right out of
high school if you wanted to. But it's not something that people would necessarily
know about. - And to be honest, I came from a town where everybody's parents pretty
much worked in a factory. I was the very first grandchild on my dad's side of the
family to ever go to university. So it wasn't like there was a lot of guidance.
And like my parents were proud that we were going to college, but there wasn't a
lot of guidance because that's not the path that they necessarily took either. So
you're kind of just struggling by doing what you can, right? Trying to figure out
what do I want to do? How do I get there? Yeah. Yeah.
So knowing what you know now, what advice would you give your teenage self?
I think to be patient and to give self -time you know I thought I would have life
figured out by the time I was 21 and I was done school and I was gonna have my
forever job. A hundred percent with you. Yes. A hundred. Devon often says oh boy
you just got Sarah Jane because she's like nodding and shaking and doing. Yeah I
didn't know that career. 21. Yeah I did not know this career existed even when I
was one, right? Like, I didn't, I didn't know that this would where I would end
up. I'm so glad I did, because I love my job. I also think,
you know, I started in this role 16 years ago. And I don't, I wasn't the same
person back then, because your life experiences really make you who you are. And I
think because of all the life experiences I've had, makes me a more empathetic and
compassionate case manager, and I think it makes me more relatable to my clients.
And I think it makes me a better case manager,
honestly.
You're probably not wrong. Yeah, probably very true.
Absolutely. Devon, do you have any other questions for Courtney? I do not. Well, I
mean, How long do we have? [LAUGHTER] It's gotta be a million. That's cool.
No, not today. Perhaps another day. I won't be that mean. She probably has things
to do.
Well, thank you so much, Courtney, for sharing your experiences and your career
journey. I always learn something from people's career journey.
And Sometimes there's the reminders of, "Yep,
yep, that's the actual way it is," and so really appreciate your time and attention
today. Thank you for having me. No problem. Stay tuned for the next adventure on
The One About Careers.

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