Spotlight on CFCS: Malene Council

There are countless stories that live within our walls at CFCS, but not all of them come from the children and families we work with. Our employees –  the social workers, case managers, interns, admins and directors who make our agency run smoothly – are the reason for our success as an organization. They also happen to be interesting people with quite a few good stories of their own!

We’re highlighting the rich experiences and perspectives our staff bring to the office with a series on the blog called “Spotlights on CFCS”. Today we’re celebrating Malene Council, a milieu counselor at Teens Learning Choices!

Tell us a bit about yourself!

I’m a mom – I have a son. I like to hang out with my friends. I just enjoy having a good time with good people with good energy. I like to read. I like to work with the girls here, although sometimes it can be stressful.

I’m from Cambridge, and I live in Cambridge now. Before I came to CFCS, I did sales and marketing for a company that sold insurance to senior citizens. I was there for four and a half years, and before that I’d worked at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education since I was 18 years old.

I didn’t go to college, because I really never had interest in it. I feel like if there’s something specific you know you want to do, you don’t necessarily have to do a whole four years in college – you can do a two-year program to focus on what you really want. For me, I just couldn’t wait to get out of school.

How long have you worked at CFCS?

One year.

What brought you to CFCS?

I always wanted to do residential work because my mom and sister do work similar to this. My sister works at a transition home for girls with babies, and my mom is a domestic violence advocate. So this has always been in my family.

I found this job because a friend of mine was already working at TLC. And I just love working with kids, and wanted to make a difference. I can sort of relate to the residents in some ways, and tweak the advice I give them based on my own experience.

I wanted to do something that was rewarding and where I could actually see the people I was working with instead of selling a product I didn’t believe in.

What does your work day typically include?

For me, I always like to take the temperature of the house before I get in. So I’ll text whoever’s working that day and ask what’s going on. When I come in, I do my security checks and get my updates. Most of the time, the residents come to me for stuff. They rely on me because I’m always around, always in the communal spaces. My trick to get the residents to open up to me was, I just started cooking. So when I come in they know that they’re gonna eat. We’ll sit at the table and talk.

Most of time it’s crazy. Like today, I was trying to tell one resident she doesn’t have to leave TLC yet, and trying to help another girl as well. So it’s busy.

What’s the best part of your job?

Oh my gosh! The girls. I think of them when I get home. They do have their tensions, and they get mad. But it’s nice when they say things like, “we trust you,” or when they give me a hug when I come in.

What’s a challenge you’ve faced while on the job? How did you overcome it?

There’s a resident downstairs applying for college right now. But six months ago, she slept all the time and wasn’t motivated to do anything. She was sleeping so much that finally I decided, she needs to get up at a certain time every day. So every day, I’d go up to her room, knock on the door and get her up. I kept encouraging her. And my consistency, her seeing that I was here every day for her, it meant something.

It’s been a little tricky with her. Even after I started waking her up, she would still give some of the morning staff a hard time and pretend to be sleeping when they tried to get her up. So whenever I came in the morning I’d still try to get her up at 7 or whatever. And eventually, she started waking up on her own. Lately, when I come in to work she’s already up, getting her meds.

When I first started working here, in January 2019, she was going to school. She liked having the structure that school provided. But when school ended in the summer, that’s when she stopped getting up and the problems started. So I started seeing a change in her just recently, like this winter. In this past month, she’s been amazing. She still has her days, but for the most part she’s not sleeping all the time anymore.

And I think the energy in the house has helped her. Sometimes the dynamic between the girls makes it difficult. They can feed off each other’s energy, and if one of them is having a hard time it can affect everybody else in the house. But lately, the house has been calm.