youth worker

youth counselor

program facilitator

home care worker

youth specialist

Closer to Home Community Services

I applied for a position within this organization because I once had a home-support worker through them, and they were amazing with my family. I wanted to be apart of an organization that I could also contribute my skills too. Due to my skill set I was offered to go into work immediately without the official training except for a couple modules done at the office. 

The work and position was awesome, and was exactly what I expected. The co-workers I met and worked with were also awesome. 
But tragedy struck my family, and a family member died. Due to this, I missed my training even though I had direct communication with the company and even though I had already worked at several locations. I was told not to worry, and to take all the time I needed to grieve. I did this for a couple days. I emailed the office when I was ready to come back (the following week), and was told I would get my schedule. I was then told through email that it was discussed that I would need to do the training prior to working, which would be in another week. I was a little taken aback, as this also meant I wouldn't be paid with no shifts worked. I still took it in stride, and prepared for the training. When training came up, it was never communicated to me where the training was, or whether it was online or in person. I contacted the office again, and heard nothing until the next day, late in the afternoon. And to my surprise, the response I received was my termination letter. The reason? I was still in probation, and I was not a good fit. I asked what I could have done differently, and was told I couldn't have done anything differently. I was also told that they didn't have to tell me anything else. I was horrified! With the pandemic going on, and the death of a family member, I didn't expect this treatment at all. 

Many of the staff I came across complained about how they were treated, and how they were stuck in positions and never moved up. This company is not run efficiently or ethically. It is a shame, as I thought much highly of it prior to becoming employed with them. 
I strongly suggest, you move along, and find something else.

If your looking to be a day staff: (12-14 hour days) It’s a great place to work if you are able to work 50-60 hours a week sometimes more in a group home. There’s also potentially working 15-24 hours in a day in some cases. The best part is meeting kids that you love and building relationships but the worst is management, Due to the nature of the job being a mom basically and almost all the people working there are women it gets competitive and more like a favourite game. If the management doesn’t like you, your gonna be fired. The kids can be a handful some staff have been seriously hurt to the point of taking months off work. Ya you get some free activities with kids and free food but it’s not  worth it. I loved the company vision that they were helping kids and providing them with proper housing, clothing, food etc. But after working there a while it’s a crazy amount of responsibility on staff who are over worked and tired. The job description doesn’t end, you do everything from gardening to reading bedtime stories. If your younger especially don’t work here, all of the management and staff treat you different due to age. It’s an experience working here so if you think you can handle it go ahead. Don’t get your hopes up that it’s a good job, or you will be disappointed. Go in knowing it’s VERY hard at times. You WILL be gossiped about like a high schooler. You WILL have things thrown at you and you WILL get hurt. You are going to do insane shifts, you will be asked questions you don’t know how to answer. You will make mistakes because everyone does there. Oh and at some point you will likely be accused of something or put under investigation. It’s a stressful job so only do it if you know you can handle potentially 4 children in a 12 hour day by yourself.

This job will take over your life. In the group homes you will often work 50-60 hours a week with shifts verging on 20 hours a day if a kid is having a tough time. I missed birthdays, and other major friend and family events. You get it in your head that it’s normal to work this much so you just stick to it but it is the last thing from a healthy work/life balance. The culture surrounding the agency is to not complain or discuss issues with your superiors. Most complaints are met with being told that “this is the job you signed up for”. You are left feeling not listened to. The responsibilities put on the staff are a lot and you often have to go above and beyond your job description. The kids in the group homes can be aggressive and many times the staff working were not adequately trained to deal with it. I definitely witnessed my fair share of injuries that could have been avoided with proper training. When people do get injured the response is just “when will you be back”. You are rarely asked if you are okay, or if you need to speak to someone about how the (sometimes traumatic) event affected you. When you talk about a bad situation that happened, the response is to downplay it and tell you that it’s not that bad: “I went through a worse experience so you haven’t seen anything yet”. Again left feeling unheard. 

This job is definitely only suited for certain people. If group care is your absolute passion and you are okay with not having a life outside of it then that is the only way you will be somewhat happy with this job. 

Positives- The frontline staff are all super supportive and encouraging towards each other. The pay and benefits are also quite good. 


The PCC program is probably one of the worst run programs in the entire province let alone country. “Seniors” who “supervise” the program are lazy, entitled, and plain useless. No support or training or feedback given to employees, just passive-aggressive and condescending treatment to more experienced staff who actually make a difference to the lives of the kids. It’s funny that the “seniors” don’t actually have the education or the experience to deal with the complexity of the youth here. They just sit back doing absolutely nothing all day, can’t respond to emails, can’t interact with youth, can’t offer anything useful to the staff. They pass on their responsibilities aka admin work and receipts to staff as if frontline dont already have the hardest job. They do not care about you and neither do the managers or directors. So many good workers are out the door, and they keep hiring new people like you are replaceable. If they contact you about this position or program, steer clear. The best of us have had enough. The kids aren’t even the issue- it’s the management. They make your life 1000x harder than it has to be, they micromanage because they don’t have an idea how to work, and they will run down kind and compassionate people. 

I come into this role knowing full well that it's a registered charity and thus, it's funding is limited for salaries and benefits and I'm not going to be making O&G or Tech salaries. I am admin, so I don't have the ups and downs that many of our program staff sees on a daily basis and only hear a glimpse of what they experience. The culture here is great: I see the support the staff offer each other with genuine care as well as the support and training coming from management. The staff that find a rhythm here do very well and gain incredible experience in the work and in building their network. 

This is not for everyone - this is hard work, there are stressful days and  some days will push you to limits you didn't know you had - especially for those on-call. This is not the industry to be in if you want a high-paying, 9 to 5 job where you get paid just for showing up. 

If you want to be challenged though, end your day knowing that you're part of something larger, making a difference in children's lives and making Calgary a better place - this is the right organization for you.

Horrible Place to work, children and youth in group homes are violent, when asked if there was any support plan for youth and children in care they said no, when asked if any counselling was provided for  youth and child in care the response I had gotten was "it takes a really long time" Staff are all  severely burnt out on my first day I was told that this job was horrible and there is no support from management.  When asked if there was any history of the youth and children in group home Ex (Intake papers, Mental Health Records, Risk Assessment..) I was told no because management doesn't want us to "judge" the Youth and Children , so they are literally throwing you in with no knowledge on how to help the children and youth that are being provided services which is extremely dangerous because you are unaware of any possible triggers that may cause them to go into dysregulation and are unable to support them in their best interest. You also have to stay until past your 12 hour shift if crisis situation happens resulting in anywhere from a 16-20 hour work day. Turnover rate is horrible  longest employee they had only been there for 4 months.

What is the best part of working at the company?
There is so much support from management when you are struggling with either your life or career. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The job its self is stressful as you are working with the vulnerable sector as well as with kids and adults who have experienced some form of trauma. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
The work environment is incredibly supportive and they truly make you feel like you are a part of the family. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
In the group home settings you work long hours most of the time. You will start during the school year at 7am and will work until 9 pm most often. You also tend to have split shifts where you work 7am-9am and come back at 3-9pm. There is generally one person on all day and they will do some house work and prep meals for the evening. There are generally between 5 to 6 kids in the home that attend school during the day then you spend the rest of the evening doing school work or spending time with them. It is a teaching parenting model so it is more of a family atmosphere.

Can be tough working both night rotations then immediately after the 4 days off you go to days rotations. Shifts are long long. Can range between 12-14hours sometimes during crises. 
Management is not very helpful, you're sometimes put in tough situations, the children/youth can become physically aggressive, so in my opinion I would say always look out for yourself first. 
Often n typical days youth/children they make the work worth it. Just Management is useless regardless of which program especially the office people. 
Lowkey cth appears to be more of a FOR profit organization. I honestly think the organization has lost on its mission, I mean they are good at announcing the organization on social media and the outside world but when you look at the actual nature of the jobs particularly Frontliners..... they suffer. Issues are often brought up but not much is done or the bare  minimum is done to ensure they have documents.
I pity the children sometimes cause the organization pictures themselves so wonderfully but the youth ... i don't know. 

CTH raves about their culture at the office and how supportive management can be. This is not the case.

ALL employees that are not management are over-worked and under-paid. Job descriptions are not what they seem, and you will be asked time and time again to do work outside of our description. When you question it, they will tell you that you are not a hard worker or that you don't "fit in with the competencies of the agency". Your concerns might be heard, but management and supervisors don't care. The group homes are poorly managed and dangerous for staff and children. Even if you don't work as a group home worker, you will be asked to be on-call, or cover shifts when they call you out of the blue. They also call your personal cell phone on weekends for help, because they can't seem to figure out how to train and support staff. 

You might be drawn in by salary and vacation, but trust me, do not work here. They do not care about you. 

There’s not enough money in the world that could make you want to work here. 
I would strongly encourage you not to apply for this job. At first, this position seemed great. However, upon working here I realized that management does not care about their employees. 

Firstly, I was not given proper training which put me at risk. As a result, I ended up with several injuries. When I brought my concerns to management, they did not do anything to support myself or other staff members. Myself and many other staff endured constant abuse from clients in the homes. Management would simply just tell you that ‘this is just part of the job’. You definitely got the idea that if you didn’t just sit there and take it, you wouldn’t be around for long. 

There are numerous issues with this agency that myself and countless other employees have to say. However, if there’s one take away, it would be to STAY AWAY from Closer to Home. 

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Youth worker 22 salaries reported	$23.02 per hour
Youth counselor 1 salary reported	$52,750 per year
Program facilitator 6 salaries reported	$49,200 per year
Home care worker 16 salaries reported	$48,625 per year
Youth specialist 4 salaries reported	$24.00 per hour

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