Longmont Public Safety conintues to highlight jobs, services and department that are not always in the public eye.
This week, LPS talked to Emily Van Doren about her position as Longmont Public Safety’s Case Management Supervisor for the Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion program, or LEAD.
The LEAD program focuses on helping low-level drug offenders connect with resources to decrease criminal behavior and improve public safety. Additionally, LEAD officers follow up with participants to support their progress and recovery, according to the city of Longmont website.
1. Where are you from, what’s your job, how long have you been doing it?
I’m originally from Minnesota, I grew up there. I moved out to Colorado about 10 years ago and I’m the case management supervisor for the Case Management Team within the Longmont Public Safety Department. I have a team of peer case managers who offer case management support to participants or community members that law enforcement refers to us. I’ve been in this particular role since April of 2018 but my background is in social work.
2. Favorite spot in Longmont?
It depends on the scenario. To clear my head or go for a walk with a client or participant, McIntosh Lake is always a really good place. You have trails, not too strenuous, so that’s good for kind of getting back to nature. But there are lots of really great parks around here and I love all the food and coffee in Longmont.
3. What’s the most common misperception about your job?
I would say the most common misperception is that we as case managers have a tendency not to hold people accountable or that we don’t have expectations of people. Rather, I think sometimes people view our work as a little bit enabling or that we might hinder people from doing the hard work of improving their quality of life and taking ownership of that. But we have a lot of core values on our team around accepting people where they’re at and loving them enough not to stop there. We want to walk alongside them and hold them accountable and experience life with them, while using our own life experience to help them gain skills.
4. What do you wish people knew about your job?
That it’s fun! I think a lot of people may look at the population we serve or hear that we work with people struggling with mental health or substance use disorders, and think “oof, that’s gotta be hard” or “you must have a lot of patience.” But really we have a lot of fun on our team. We take joy in the little things because we believe that is important. We bring and receive joy with our participants too, since it’s a part of life they don’t often get to experience or that they don’t let themselves experience, so we try to bring that into the seriousness of our work.
5. Favorite food of all time?
Indian food. Anything in that category.
