family support coach

coach

assistant

bilingual customer service associate

executive assistant to ceo

Strongest Families Institute

I was very excited to work there- but over my time there I realized that whilst the mental health of clients is a priority, the same cannot be said of coaching staff who are worked to the bone and paid a pittance.  Working with clients and experiencing the improvement in your clients' quality of life is wonderful, but it may very well come at the cost of your own mental health.  Coaching staff are generally very kind people who genuinely care about their clients and coworkers, and the organization takes advantage of this by praising them for making a difference whilst loading more and more on ppl's plates.  At the executive level and senior management, all are family or personal friends of founder/CEO, and so moving up in the organization is nigh on impossible.  Irregular scheduling (think switching day to night and back during the week), unrealistic expectations (especially for pay, which has only been minimally increased) and listing every thing you do for every minute of the day are the basis for everyday- micromanagement in the extreme.  Turnover is incredibly high- an employee (outside of the upper echelon) there for more than 1.5 yrs would be considered someone who has been there for a long time.  Also, heaven forbid you get sick as there is no one to manage your workload in your absence, so you will return to a deluge of tasks whilst you are already always at a straight out sprint. 

Things I liked about this job: work from home, nice co-workers, and the pay is not nearly enough but high enough over minimum wage that it feels good.

Otherwise, one big issue I had was that I don't support a lot of the methods they use in the parent coaching program- it's "evidence based" as in it can work, but that doesn't mean it's necessarily kind. It's a behaviourist model of intervention that uses planned ignoring and sticker charts to change kids behaviours, and whether or not you figure out the kid's underlying issues or emotional experience is besides the point. That's the main objection I have- I don't think the interventions were aligned with my morals. 
Otherwise, they're very data driven which makes sense because you need data to recieve funding, however this results in convoluted policies to make the data seem more positive than it truly is. We don't let parents continue the program until they give a positive rating, if they consistently rate low we are told to assume they're not doing the program right, and we don't count results for people who drop out early. Getting high satisfaction ratings is probably the most important part of the job.
Finally, late hours that don't even make sense (50% of your hours must be after 6pm) when they hire people in other provinces and time zones.

First off, my specific team was small but mighty. My manager and supervisor specifically were very supportive and I love them. I had worked 2 different positions over the years and experience the slowest and saddest financial growth. I worked within a department that was so small and behind the scenes that we were the lowest paid, most under appreciated, and most overworked department. We were often not mentioned during staff appreciation days, if you asked anyone what we do they couldn’t tell you, yet we hold all the answers and keep that place going. All issues fell back into us, higher ups would constantly give us whatever they didn’t want to handle. And just to confirm, yes the nepos run that place. If you are young and looking for a leg into mental health, it works for the resume, but not for the long term. They offer you a pension, and a great one, but it means nothing if you can’t pay your bills. Sadly, most people are working 2 or more jobs and every month a new person is on stress leave. You get to work from home, so I guess that’s nice. 

This job broke me down. When I left, it was such a relief. I had become so depressed and anxious. I bet most of the staff are. There’s no healthy way to balance that company in your life. Upper Management was constantly gossiping, changing their minds, making false promises. I couldn’t focus on my day to day work without a pit in my stomach that someone was watching me, waiting for me to fail. I felt targeted on multiple occasions. I began to have panic attacks when I would sign off work because I may have missed a detail, or a minute of time in my calendar. I was grilled on why employees take mental health days. I was grilled when I was sick “too much.”I couldn’t sleep. They pay is terrible, considering how heavy the job is with little to no support; but constant badgering and nit picking. I wasn’t trained for so many things, but when I didn’t do everything perfectly, I was attacked. It is not healthy. 

Very stressful work that you receive no training for - your training is literally half an hour twice a week of a training manager vaguely going over the script and telling you to listen to training calls and old videos. The caseload quickly builds up to back to back calls with some of them being atypical files that you're not trained for. You're not allowed to progress a family unless they rate a certain improvement in their child's behavior, which means they will often feel bullied into giving a false rating so they can complete the program. The families are nice, but in a lot of cases very overwhelmed. Supervisors and managers are often clueless. It wasn't what I went to school for.

This is a job that sounds like a dream employment opportunity for those who are empathetic and wish to help people. The work with families is very rewarding, but basically, at the end of the day you are overworked and stressed out. It can be hard for your body to ever get used to the schedule as it switches back and forth from day shifts/night shifts. You also have little room for even small error. The pay is not enough when weighed against the constant stress. But this place also has strong positives if you are able to shut all that out and focus on helping your families. The feeling you get when you’ve really helped them is amazing and it does help to keep you motivated because you know the work you are doing is important.

If you answered yes to those questions, Strongest Families would be the perfect fit for you. Strongest Families couldn't care less about your mental health. This company only cares about keeping you on the phone all day so that they can fund their very top heavy organization- made up of family and friends of the CEO. It's like a scam. At Strongest Families you get to track every little task that you do. Take home pay is very low and turn over has been incredibly high! Coaches can't wait to quit thats why they are trying to hire people. Do yourself a HUGE favor and AVOID this place! 

Strongest Families is a rewarding and fun workplace. The biggest challenges are that the take home pay is especially low, once the benefit package starts. Don’t be fooled by their claim of “competitive pay”, what you take home as a coach will be barely above minimum wage. The management thrives on gossip, if you intend to advance in the company (and honestly options are limited) be prepared to buddy up to management.

If you are looking for a fast paced job in the mental health field, this is the place for you. If you value career advancement  and professionalism.... Id look elsewhere.

The staff at Strongest Families put client care first.  It is their compassion about their clients that drive the way they do business.  Sometimes the pace is fast, but you are supported every step of the way and there is always a communication line to your direct supervisor to help with the balance. They are supportive in helping to address any concerns and they have always made me feel valued in my opinions and ideas.  It is exciting to watch this dynamic company grow and to see the staff grow with them.  I would highly recommend working here. 

This was by far the worst experience of my life. The demands (and I mean demands) are no where near reasonable. They stress this unrealistic positivity while also berating you for any performance. It’s a bunch of ants under a microscope, and the sun is shining. Respect is hard to come by. Even the leadership team talks negatively about one another. Try mean girls but meets the office. Money being wasted tragically is not at all supportive to a healthy or productive work place. The culture, the expectations and the people are all toxic. When your bosses most encouraging words are “don’t worry everyone fails their calls at some point” … red. flag. 

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Family support coach 30 salaries reported	$18.53 per hour
Coach 8 salaries reported	$18.40 per hour
Assistant 7 salaries reported	$17.25 per hour
Bilingual customer service associate 5 salaries reported	$17.85 per hour
Executive assistant to ceo 3 salaries reported	$59,167 per year

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