autism support assistant

support associate

behavioral therapist

behavior technician

consultant

Kerrys Place Autism Services

Working with Kerry's Place was one of the best experiences i have ever had. I have about 5 years of volunteering experience working with autistic kids and teens and they have all been amazing. When I had arrived on site for the job my boss happily told me who i would be working with and introduced me to all my co workers. At an average day at work i would work with an autistic teen and support and entertain them throughout the day. My boss would check up on me every once in a while asking me how everything was going and was always very nice to me. The coworkers there were all very experienced and very helpful. I became good friends with one of the co-workers who had a teen that liked to spend time in a sensory room alongside my teen who did the same. I can happily say that there was not any part of the job that left me unhappy or thinking that anything was hard at all. The most enjoyable part of the job was seeing the person i worked with laugh or smile whenever i was able to help them or do something correctly. We had many programs set up to entertain the teens we worked with everyday. One time we had exotic animals come into the church with a animal service. The teens loved the animals. We even went on a trip to a trampoline place. The teens loved bouncing around and all the workers there made sure everyone was safe and within their limits. Overall working with Kerry's place was an amazing experience and i hope to work with them again.

I had high hopes when I was hired at Kerry's Place because of their claim to be the leader in the field of Autism Services. Disappointing doesn't even begin to describe my experience at KPAS. The consultants and coordinator were a fantastic bunch of people, dedicated and conscientious. Watching them be treated so poorly by other managers in the community team and upper management was hard, they are used and abused and then discarded without a second thought. HR seems to support this culture of devaluing front line or semi-front line employees. 
The safety concerns were endless: med errors are frequent, staff neglect of clients is pervasive and discipline for such behaviour is non-existent. I left KPAS with a ton of unused vacation because I could never take the vacation days I booked because the program I managed was in perpetual chaos. HR doesn't realize when they can fire people and when they cannot, so people who don't deserve to work with a vulnerable population are never fired while people who go above and beyond are never celebrated. They really need to get their programs and HR aligned with their so-called values or someone is going to get even more seriously hurt than they have already in these programs.

The pay structure here is ridiculous. They have a "range" with 4 different levels of pay and they can start you anywhere within that range based on previous experience. It's very possible (and has happened many times) for two staff to both be hired at the exact same time, start the same day, and have the same position but one staff is getting 2 to 3 dollars more an hour than the other, even though both staff are doing the exact same position. If they try to start you at the very bottom of the pay scale, do NOT accept it. Try to fight it and negotiate it and if you can't then go elsewhere. The most stressful part of working here is the common practice of being stranded and not being allowed to leave at your end of your shift. Guess what, if your working an evening shift and the overnight staff is late, no shows, or calls in sick at the last minute, guess what? YOU'RE STAYING. It happened so often. It got to a point where staff would bring an extra set of clothes and their toothbrushes to evening shifts but they never knew if they were actually leaving at 10PM like they were supposed to. This happened on every shift too. Messed up place to work and not worth the terrible pay.

Being a current employee i love my job. I choose my own hrs according to my clients availability and they are flexible for most part. Benefits are good. Pay is good. On my 4th raise so far. Managers are great (i enjoy mines) only down fall is they tend to fire managers pretty fast. They try to say ppl like to move on but through gossip u find out what happens.  Im on my 4th manager and this is my 3rd year but she is great. Since ive been hired 9 managers had been fired which sucks because they knew the clients and the way certain sites were set up (protocols ect..) new managers have so much to learn and due to no knowledge of the clients, im constantly in meetings to explain there needs ect.. overall aside from management, great company, co workers, so far this is my favourite organization. Lots of room to grow and managers really help you achieve your goals personally. Very supportive managers when u need any type of support. Paper work wise theres so much expectations and most the documents are very repetitive so its like constantly repeating yourself.

Where do I even begin?

Lets start with the location. The Pickering program is located in the middle of nowhere and surrounded by dirt roads that are dangerous to drive on. The roads are unstable and full of pot holes and trying to get to work in bad weather is awful. The property itself is a mess and the house is surrounded by massive weeds that are bigger than actual people. There is no maintenance at all and it's disgusting.

Now lets talk about the nonsense with the union. For reasons that were never actually explained, this house is one of the only houses in all of Kerry's Place that isn't part of the union. About 98% of the homes are unionised but this one is not and it shows. This program is complete chaos. 

Management has very little presence, there is bullying and aggressive behaviour from staff towards others with no consequence and the stress level of working in this environment is off the charts. The pay is awful, the scheduling is a mess, and the lack of workplace safety is a huge concern. 

I can't speak for any of the other homes but if you get a job here, avoid Pickering!



I worked out of the Orangeville location. Supporting the residents was a very rewarding experience. I enjoyed getting to know them and supporting them with daily tasks. My coworkers were very supportive and ensured I felt comfortable at all times and provided excellent training. Management was highly unprofessional and sneaky pinning med errors of other higher up staff on newer staff even when proven otherwise. HR was highly unprofessional and continuously provided incorrect information. The expectation of attending training in other cities is not appropriate especially not offering travel compensation or being reasonable to people in school who cannot attend every training session or event. Despite major issues with all upper management and HR, the work is an excellent starting point for students and people entering the field. The work is meaningful and I highly enjoyed learning how better to support the residents. 

The persons supported are awesome and they are deserving so much more from management and direct support staff alike. The mission, vision, values and philosophy of the organization is unfortunately not evident in the organization's culture, workmanship of the direct support staff or the commitment from the management team. There are some great staff at KPAS, but far too many fail to buy in and get the job done. These staff (management and front line) lack morale and true compassion. They are are self serving and lack vision, the well being of the persons supported is not their priority. I remain optimistic however, that positive change will happen and those working earnestly to make a difference in the lives of the supported persons will reap the benefits of their hard work. If you are truly passionate about helping others and willing to work, give KPAS a try.

I was an assistant at the new Pickering/Balsam location. Management was respectful and I enjoyed working for them. Some of the co-workers were horrible though and made this a very uncomfortable place to work at. There was a small group of full-time, female staff here that engaged in workplace bullying towards others. They were very controlling, rude, and disrespectful. They were controlling despite not having any actual authority and had no problem embarrassing other staff in front of everyone else. If they didn't like you, they went out of their way to make you feel unwanted and unsafe. I developed major anxiety while working here. Management was never able to really do anything about it because the managers were stretched so thin and had so many different houses to run. It really was a shame because this residence has so much potential and could be so much more but not with these staff working here.

First off, if you have school, another job, or have young children, this job will not work for you. This is there insane practice where if your relief is late, or calls in sick and there's no coverage, you MUST stay. It's IN your contract and you are helpless. It doesn't matter if you have another job right afterwards or other engagements, you MUST stay. This happens to staff at least once a week. When you work a shift here, you honestly don't know if you're going home or not at the end of the shift and that's a very stressful way to function.

The pay is one of the lowest wages I have ever seen. I can't believe that a profession that works as hard as we do gets paid so little, it's disgusting. The one good thing about this place is the benefits. Full timers get really good benefits, it's just a shame that's the only positive and it's not worth it for all the bad things that we have to deal everyday.

I too was a former employee at the new Balsam program. I loved the 4 guys that lived here, they all had great qualities. Management was good and our co-ordinator was one of the nicest people you could ever met. He was a 30-year veteran of KP and we were lucky to have him. Unfortunately some of the staff made this place horrible to work at. There was a clique of 3 women, two of which were associates and one was an agency staff that worked full time hours that made the environment unbearable. Angry, abusive, hostile, controlling, mean and bullying. It was such a dangerous situation because we were so short staffed and the 2 associates in particular constantly worked overtime hours so it felt like management overlooked alot of their behaviour because they were just deseparate for coverage. Just a really sad situation all around.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Autism support assistant 136 salaries reported	$22.36 per hour
Support associate 50 salaries reported	$24.22 per hour
Behavioral therapist 82 salaries reported	$29.06 per hour
Behavior technician 77 salaries reported	$23.73 per hour
Consultant 13 salaries reported	$26.66 per hour

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