On the Ascend blog, we like to take a moment every month to give you a look behind the scenes at what happens at our facilities. This month, we’ve chosen to highlight someone who’s integral to our operations: Assistant Facility Manager for Encino and Tarzana, Aida! Learn more about how she helps ensure the houses are running smoothly when you check out a day in her life here!
What Does An Assistant Facility Manager Do?
Aida has so much going on, it’s tough to nail down just what she’ll be doing during the day. She might be restocking supplies, training mentors, or running groups with the clients. There is no typical day for Aida because she’s responsible for supporting our Facility Manager, Emely Hernandez, with anything she may need. She’s the Robin to Emely’s Batman.
Since Aida helps with the management of three houses, she might be checking in with Emely to create the day’s plan, organizing supplies, traveling between houses, supporting mentors, or even fixing the wifi.
How Aida Got Her Start
Aida was someone that struggled with her mental health growing up. Finding positivity in her own journey made it clear to her that she wanted to help others do the same. She’s done a lot of work on both the clinical and operational sides of mental health treatment, but the start of her career was actually bringing joy to people by delivering everyone’s favorite burger (Double-Double Animal Style, obviously) by drive-through.
Work Before Ascend
Aida had long wanted to get into mental health, but she worked as a supervisor in fast food before moving on to a non-profit treatment center. Her first experience in the mental health community was at Cri-Help in North Hollywood, a non-profit substance abuse treatment center for adults. There, Aida worked as a residential technician before moving on to Ascend.
When she finally joined our team, Aida started off as a mentor on the floor, slowly working her way up to Assistant Facility Manager. Because she has worked multiple positions at Ascend, Aida knows the best ways to support all the members of our facility-based staff.
Why Aida Loves Ascend
While Aida has worked in multiple mental health facilities, Ascend stands out because she sees that we have incredibly high client care standards and integrity. She’s confident that we’ll always place our client needs first, while still providing support for staff, helping everyone learn and grow with many opportunities for personal development. She believes that Ascend is a people-first company that cares about everyone involved in the organization.
Why Ascend Loves Aida
We love having Aida on our team because she works so hard on behalf of our clients and staff. She’s willing to come in at the drop of a hat whenever she’s needed, and she always maintains a positive outlook whenever she’s onsite. We’ve seen the compassion Aida has for staff and clients, making her a true beacon of positivity, comfort, and sympathy.
Aida enters our clients’ lives at one of the most difficult times in their personal journey. We’re lucky to have someone on our team that’s able to provide the love, kindness, and support they need from the moment they walk through our doors. Her dedication to her work is also a great example for our mentors, and she’s an integral part of the training process for turning out more quality team members.
Pushing Through the Rough Stuff
Like any job, Assistant Facility Manager comes with plenty of challenges. Whether it’s the AC breaking down or a client expressing negative feelings, it’s hard to navigate every challenge while still ensuring she has strong boundaries. Whenever something frustrating happens at Ascend, Aida reminds herself of her personal needs — reinforcing that she can’t help others if she’s not putting her own needs first. Self-care is her constant mantra — and ours too!
Finding Her Motivation
Even on her toughest days, it takes very little to motivate Aida. She’s one of those people that truly loves and enjoys her job. She gets a strong sense of satisfaction from ensuring all the houses are running properly. When the houses are on track, then the client’s needs are being met — which is really what matters the most!
Passion Projects for Aida
While she’s incredibly passionate about her work, Aida has other interests that keep her going strong. She’s constantly working on herself, going to school full-time to complete an MFT program and finding time to work out in the mornings. She particularly loves how strength training illustrates the amazing capabilities of the human body!
More Spotlights From Our Team
With every spotlight we do, we hope to showcase another team member that’s just as committed and dedicated to their work at Ascend as Aida is. We have so many people that make a difference, it’s hard to choose just one each month!
If you enjoyed a day in the life of Aida, make sure to check out our other blogs for a peek behind the scenes of other positions. And don’t forget to visit our blog next month for the upcoming spotlight!
