support worker

outreach worker

case worker

youth worker

facilitator

Boyle Street Community Services

My job primarily involved working with high-risk/high-needs youth in their residential program.

PROS:

- Felt fairly compensated for my work -- great benefits package for full-time staff

- Working with the youth was a lot of fun (although there were difficult times -- youth are often physically/verbally aggressive and this can get stressful)

- Generally got along very well with frontline coworkers -- you're working as a team so you develop pretty close bonds.


CONS:

- Management culture is TOXIC here. Like, Chernobyl toxic. Gossip, favouritism, etc. runs rampant. Not uncommon to hear management berating colleagues/name-calling behind people's backs. Horribly unprofessional. No real recourse in terms of bringing concerns forward as the lack of care seems to run right to the top.

- The lack of support for employees here is appalling. Employees regularly deal with stressful/traumatic situations on the day-to-day and these concerns are typically dismissed. There's a lot of talk about self-care amongst the organization but employees who actually took steps to engage in self-care would be ridiculed or sometimes punished (e.g. not given shifts if part-time)

- This is HARD work. You can leave feeling physically exhausted. Not uncommon to be hit/bitten/otherwise hurt by youth as there were several highly aggressive youth in the program when I worked here.

- Little follow-up/follow-through on training, leading to a lot of poorly/improperly trained employees. Very frustrating to be on shift with someone who was supposed to be trained in crisis interventions but clearly had no idea what they were doing. Experienced this on multiple occasions.

- Poor job security and high turnover rate. The revolving door of staff should have been my first major red flag. People get in and get out, and having gotten out, I understand why.

My advice? There are other not-for-profits in this city that treat their employees with far more dignity. Opt for them.

I can’t speak for the company as a whole but the small group home section for youth is an incredibly toxic environment with huge turnover because everyone either quits or gets unethically let go. Absolutely horrible management that gossip about you behind your back to your fellow co-workers. You will be forced to make decisions based on keeping the youth safe, yet your choices will always be incorrect and you will always be pulled into the office and in trouble for decisions you were forced to make due to lack of support from management and staff. They do not follow their policies and procedures and do not write you up, instead, they lure you into a false sense of security, give you feedback that you’re doing great, and then fire you out of the blue. I had actually quit my job and they attempted to write it up as a termination until I threatened legal action. There is so much drama with management that you can’t hope to make any difference in the lives of the youth, as you’re too busy “watching your back.” Don’t trust HR or any of the team leads/management team, they are all friends with each other. Also, management is always messing up the work schedule and then force you to go home when they’ve double booked staff, or penalize you when they put your name down for a shift you were never supposed to work, so you obviously don’t show up for it.

The population of clients that staff work with is high risk. The work is meaningful and you can feel the difference that you make in people's lives. However, this comes with a lot of stress and risk of burnout. Management leads staff to believe that communication is key and that you are a valued member of the team - however, this couldn't be further from the truth. Staff are given a false sense of security and are then fired for bringing up any possible issues (even after their probation is over). 
With the current management, my recommendation is to never discuss anything personal with coworkers (especially your supervisors), keep your head down, and focus solely on the work. If you feel burnout, do NOT disclose it to management, instead utilize benefits and get a doctor's note.
I have high hopes that Boyle Street can weed out the poor management and change the high turnover rate. 

I joined Boyle Street Community Services as a youth worker with a couple years of experience working in group homes, so I was excited about working in a more administrative role. I can say that I did gain a lot of training and experience working with high-risk youth, families, and Alberta Health Services clinicians. Ultimately, I was terminated for needing more support than management was willing to give me. I am the type of person to keep my head down and focus on my work when dealing with toxic work dynamics and it was incredibly difficult to do that in my role here. By the time I was let go, it seemed like everyone was burnt out. The hardest part of the job for me was realizing how little of a difference one can actually make, especially when working with clients who are not engaged or who are too far gone.

As a support worker at the csd program, the pay is competitive compared to other departments, it still does not keep up with the cost of living and any raise has been laughable. This program once offered a great work life balance that made up for the pay, that you knew you couldn’t find anywhere else. It is now sterile and cold with the expectation that anything and everything needs to go to the client, even at the expense of the employee wellness. While the job has fairly decent benefits, the package is tiered and you can’t access it all until after putting significant time in. Management will tell you over and over that nothing you do or give is enough and it definitely has a culture of ‘you should be here for the good of the client, and nothing else’. 
The workplace has been exceptional unwelcoming lately  and I would only recommend applying here if you are needing to get experience under your belt, otherwise stay away. 

BSCS is an amazing organization to get started your career in Social Work and/or Psychology/Counselling. Management is compassionate and understanding and staff are collaborative and welcoming. 

I had the opportunity to work with Boyle and enjoyed every single minute of it. I would still working there if it were not for my relocation. 

Management goes above and beyond ensuring that staff is fully prepared and up to speed. If there is ever a road bump, management will ensure that a performance plan is set in place. Staff are also there to help along the way to create a happy and collaborative environment. 

Definitely the best non-profit that I've ever worked for. There is also a plethora of staff incentives and perks!

Unfortunately Boyle is very unorganized and don’t have supports in place to ensure job security, or ways to benefit their employees. High turnover rate and managers do not have supports to help even the base employees like myself. 

Directors are always busy and takes forever to respond to simple requests, HR department is no assistance and seem to push everything off, and do not have options available and have to get more approval for simple requests, HR department is suppose to help the organization but when our program closed they told us to reapply like we are new employees with minimum support from the director of the program and the hr team manager. At this time wouldn’t recommend, needs a clean house of upper management who is organized and willing to put time into employees to ensure smooth day tasks and well-being 

Our manager is a narcissist who plays staff against one another, cannot handle the basics of being a manager, and consistently needs his ego stroked. If you disagree with him he writes staff up and hauls them into HR, who is a giggly joke of a woman. He is rude, disrespectful and cannot do the basic job that it takes to be a manager. There is no support here as all the management is the same. Labour laws are consistently broken and staff is afraid for they’re jobs as you never know what he will make up about you, if you have disagreed with him. This man has no business managing anything and yet he fits right in. Run, don’t walk away from Boyle Street, your self worth and mental health isn’t worth the paycheque. 

As much as they think they are helpful, only a couple of programs are actually helpful. A high amount of office politics is in play there. The program director was replaced and my position was replaced. The new program director sexually harassed the new person replacing me and she quit. No one in higher positions believed her. Not a good environment. At all. No one believed me for 10 weeks.. from that environment I suffered PTSD and refuse to work for another non profit organization.

Here, there is a collaborative management style and you'll have autonomy in your work day. 
Management meets with you monthly to ask how they can support you in your work and yearly, the company sends out a satisfaction survey to their employees. Throughout the year employees get updates on how the concerns brought up in the survey are being addressed. 

You'll have a lot of autonomy in your work day here for e.g. deciding when to take your break and what tasks you want to focus on for that day. 
There is also emphasis on employee health here. The benefits are great and employees are encouraged to use sick days for appointments or even for "mental health days."

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Support worker 23 salaries reported	$23.84 per hour
Outreach worker 8 salaries reported	$25.52 per hour
Case worker 4 salaries reported	$27.90 per hour
Youth worker 1 salary reported	$30.22 per hour
Facilitator 2 salaries reported	$27.01 per hour

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