support worker

residential supervisor

outreach worker

residential team leader

human resources specialist

Community Living Alternative Services

Cannot speak to the organization in the other program streams though I used to work in the complex needs program, as a community disability support practitioner. I’ll start with pros then lead into the cons.

Pros:

- 4 twelve hour shifts and 3 days off at 25$ per hour. So high range for this field and position
- Decent financial bonuses based on performance and compliance with management
-  Minimal paperwork (seemingly very useless minus a few key targeted charts for behaviour modification)
- From past experience If you are looking for a job that requires a minimal level of cognition and critical thinking you will be quite pleased
—————————————————————
Cons:
- Management does not value staff input or the safety of staff
- Supported individuals can constantly verbally and physically assault staff without repercussion
- Job is lacking in any sort of cognitive stimulation. Most of your days will be based around cooking/cleaning and deescalation of potentially violent situations followed by sitting on the couch for hours
- Team work is very strong though unfortunately it sometimes lacks if staff working together do not work well together or have different perspectives on support
- In the time I was working it appeared that documentation and case management is very unprofessional and very basic. If coming from a case management background and you thrive on objective, organized information, you will be disappointed.
- No room to progress your career in this position. This position is a job and will not stimulate you cognitively nor will it promote growth and a career base. Unfortunately in my experience it is babysitting with the possible chance of getting verbally and physically abused often.
————————————————————-.

*This position will require an individual who is extremely patient, is able to handle constant verbal abuse, potentially constant physical abuse and who prefers to be in a position that requires general house cleaning/cooking, relaxing on the couch or going for walks.*

Overall this position was not for me. I felt it to be a position where I needed very little cognitive capacity and required very little education, critical thinking and physical prowess

If you have a chance to go somewhere else I'd recommend seriously looking at it. This place will chew you up and spit you out without a second thought.

-Unqualified and incompetent management.
-Unqualified and incompetent staff.
-Culture of favoritism and nepotism.
-100% agency centered care.
-Unapproachable HR dept., used as enforcers.
-Lack of staff support.
-Inappropriate relationships.
-Inappropriate staff conduct.
-General lack of concern for the well being of the individuals in support.

The list goes on.

This place is all about the money, everything else is a secondary concern. Some of the things I've seen happen here would make your head spin. Constant staff and lower level management turnover. The last people I would want to contact is HR as that would surely put a target on my back. Unless you are friends with someone in management your job security here is next to none. If you do happen to be related to or friends with someone in management, feel free to come do nothing, take programs in a backwards direction, generally be a negative influence and you will have a home for many years to come.

I would never put a loved one or family member in this agencies care.

Long hours, relatively low pay... but you can make a lot of money because you are working over 100 hours a week sometimes... there is little to no guidance from upper management and if something goes wrong...you will be the first to blame probably... upper management operates on a very much like personal basis and if they do not like you watch out! inappropriate relationships between supervisors and staff it seems.. coordinators seem to be very self driven with a lack of care for staff it appears.. business is run like a dictatorship it feels like. On call supervisors pretty much ask what you would do rather than give instruction on how to handle different crises...can be very rude and get angry with staff it appears..
Good parts of the job would be the clients, they are great and lots of different outtings you can go on with them that help their lives. Coworkers make the days fun and can be very supportive with the high-stress demands of the job

Working at CLAS provided for an interesting environment. The benefit was that I worked 48 hours in a row and I had 5 days off. Although they wanted me to work as many hours as I could but I did not want to. It was great being able to sleep at night, but some houses you could possibly not get a great sleep. It is sad to see how minimal you are paid, especially for the clientele that you had. I get sad that people with disabilities are somehow on the bottom of the totem pole for those who work in Social Work. It should not be treated that way. This work is hard but it can be quite fun. I spent many days on walks, going to Banff, hanging out with the clients and seeing them have fun. I know that 'safe rooms' can be a little scary, but I am thankful for a place where the clients can feel safe when they are struggling with their emotions. 

I genuinely believe that the leadership team and the owner very much care about the individuals with disabilities and they are their number one priority always. I was part of the HR team and worked closely with them. The environment was very pleasant, my supervisor was very supportive and helpful and helped me grow in my role. I found the benefits being expensive, but this is probably because I am used to having them covered 100% be employer.
Many social workers loved working for CLAS as they paid more than other non profit organizations, there were lots of opportunities for overtime which was amazing for many. 
All that being said it very much depends on who your supervisor is and this can make a massive difference in regards to enjoyment of your work. 
I think there should be more vacation days provided. 
I think it is great place to work!

It was abundantly clear that the main focus of this company is NOT the clients they serve.  It is MONEY.  Almost all management I encountered thought themselves to be experts in the field and yet there was no real outlined process of support.  I heard of nightmarish episodes and issues from the group homes and day programs alike - in almost every location as well.  Staff and management definitely plays favorites, both with other staff, and clients.  And lord help you if you have any problems with your paycheque - office and administration staff is a gong show.  I would strongly recommend working elsewhere if you can, and I would never hire this company for any member of my family.

Clients are challenging but great.
Management is very cold and unsupportive to employees. 
Client homes are extremely run down, and long working hours without overtime,
Expectation for use of own vehicle and expenses for client outings, no reinversment for gas or paid for events/activities... (Rather an expectation as part of the job).

Company doesn't honour / follow through on promises 

Many unsafe working conditions ... Expectation to Transport clients with dangerous behaviour alone where client may potentially cause serious accidents.

Employees experience a supervising staff who play favouritism.

A difficult place to work if you care about doing a quality job for your employer.

the reviews on here speak for themselves. this is high school all over again. 
some houses are in bad bad condition. some have gophers, bugs, mold, mice. appears to be much favortism in management. many friends of management come before other employees when schedule comes out. if you are not liked personality you are a walking target. 
it is to funny that hr responds on here saying to contact them directly but you have to go through management before contacting them when you are a working staff ?
good balance between life and work because you can work a lot of hours in a short time period and have many days off. 
the clients make the job fun and some shift partners are nice.

The overseers did not care about day program staff's mental health or well-being throughout the pandemic, only concerned with funding. Thus they would force staff to go into the community with individuals in their personal vehicles without providing proper PPE for the staff and their vehicles. They would threaten the staff's job security, to compel us not to complain, and if we did, we would get fired (which occurred) before the pandemic things were a little different, not perfect but not excellent. Once the pandemic hit, the actual colors of the overseers came to light.
Lack of leadership resulted to low morale. We also got paid monthly.

Treat independent subcontractors like dirt. Refuse to treat them in the same manner as regular employees. Still administer paper pay checks as opposed to automatic deposit like most efficiently run businesses these days.  
 Totally archaic and inefficient administrative practices. Supervisors like to operate by using intimidation and scare tactics. Inflexible and unreasonable demands with no room for making any exceptions. 
Incompetency all around.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Support worker 19 salaries reported	$22.37 per hour
Residential supervisor 16 salaries reported	$52,778 per year
Outreach worker 13 salaries reported	$20.29 per hour
Residential team leader 1 salary reported	$54,329 per year
Human resources specialist 5 salaries reported	$41,500 per year

Working at Community Living Alternative Services: company overview and reviews

Community Living Alternative Services

Community Living Alternative Services ratings

Popular jobs at Community Living Alternative Services

Salary satisfaction

Job seeker tools

Employer Tools

Browse

Stay Connected