Career Highlights

• With Northern Rivers since 2010, Lenear has advanced through two residential counselor positions and assistant resident supervisor to her current role as resident supervisor.
• Lenear is working on her master’s degree in social work with help from tuition reimbursement offered by Northern Rivers. 
• Lenear knows she has helped make an impact on RTF youth when she hears that they’ve gone to college or can live with a lower level of care after leaving the program.
  

At the Northern Rivers Residential Treatment Facility (RTF), a 24/7 live-in option for youth ages 12 to 21 unable to maintain long-term stability due to mental health issues, Lenear C. believes in helping one young person at a time within her larger role as a residential supervisor. “Children matter,” Lenear says. “They are our future.” Lenear, who works with the youth as well as supervises staff, emphasizes the structure, consistency, and predictability that young people at the RTF especially need, and that the RTF team strive to provide. 

Lenear applied to Parsons Child & Family Center in 2010 because she wanted to add residential experience to her social services skills. She joined Parsons as a residential counselor II, working with youth and providing leadership in a care team at RTF, Lenear soon added more administrative responsibilities when she was promoted to residential counselor III, adding further administrative and leadership responsibilities to her work with youth and planning work for other team members. Then, in 2013, she became assistant supervisor, and in 2016, was promoted to her current job. “I fell in love with it, and I’ve been able to move up,” she says.

As residential supervisor, Lenear oversees about two dozen staff members—full-time, part-time, and per diem—including two assistant supervisors who oversee the residential counselors. In addition to her responsibilities on the administrative side of the facility, which is licensed by New York state, she also works directly with up to 14 youth living there. 

Lenear describes her supervisory responsibilities as helping her staff be the best they can be. She says, “I believe in them as others have believed in me. I have had many mentors; their devoted commitment to the work we do every day has paved the way for my growth in the field as they are role models for me and continue to support me to this day." Lenear mentors newer staffers, and the team collaborates, sharing their experience and knowledge to benefit the children. And, she adds, she also benefits from her colleagues’ knowledge and experience in their collaborations.

“I believe in my staff as others have believed in me. I have had many mentors; their devoted commitment to the work we do every day has paved the way for my growth in the field as they are role models for me and continue to support me to this day."

Lenear’s commitment at Northern Rivers doesn’t stop with the RTF youth; she notes that she is ready, willing, and able to help any of the kids on campus. She connects with youth through campuswide activities like open gym sessions, trips to sports games, or one of her favorite events, a kickball game with Albany police intended to foster positive connections with law enforcement. 

Successes by young people who have gone through their program and can then able maintain and sustain themselves with a lower level of care show Lenear the value of the RTF program. She believes in the RTF approach, saying that it helps youth learn lifelong tools to help themselves. She notes that some of their former residents are now in college, which is very gratifying. And more immediately, she and coworkers can see happy expressions on youth’s faces when they arrive at work, ready to provide a listening ear and the structure and predictability that the kids may have never experienced.