Her Story
About Courtney
I've been working in social services for about 7 years, and I just recently started my current position as a constituent navigator with the Department of Elder Affairs about a month ago. Before this, I spent 5 years in dependency case management working with child welfare on both judicial cases (court-ordered cases where children were taken away) and non-judicial cases (where families kept their children but had to complete services). I'm passionate about helping families overcome barriers and being reunited with their children. I'd say about 50% of my cases resulted in successful reunification, which always made me happy because I'm a big advocate of parents completing their services and getting their children back rather than having them go to foster care and adoption. Before case management, I worked as a family advocate for North Florida Child Development, a Head Start agency funded by the government, working with infants and toddlers. I started there as an infant and toddler teacher. Now in my current role, I receive cases, identify barriers, make initial contact within 24 hours, and navigate resources for seniors experiencing issues like homelessness, financial assistance, rental assistance, housing, Medicaid, and Medicare. I don't like waiting on cases because sometimes it's an emergency situation. My main area of expertise is basically helping children, families, and elderly people overcome barriers and access the resources they need.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Courtney
01What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I've ever received was to keep adding to my resume. One of my supervisors told me this makes sense because you can step outside the box - there are other things I know I can do that will contribute to social work. In both dependency and here at the Department of Elder Affairs, they have certain certifications that we can receive that they do pay for. So I just like to venture beyond my social work degree. Right now, I'm about to take the Florida Certified Contract Manager certification in two weeks. I just keep adding to my resume and building my skills.
02What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
The values most important to me in work and personal life are being trustworthy, loyal, and timely. I used to have a big issue with being late when I was a young mom and first started working in my career. I just feel like being on time is a big thing - I don't care how good you do your job, if a person sees you're not on time, that's not a good thing. Timeliness, being trustworthy, and being loyal to your employer are big things to me in the workforce. Outside of work, I want people that I'm around to be loyal to me, honest, and know that I can count on them as far as the time thing too. I used to be late all the time, and even my family members would say 'we know Courtney's gonna be late,' so they'd have to tell me a different time to get there on time. I didn't like that, so I worked on improving it.
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