home visitor

early childhood teacher

foster care specialist

therapist

family support specialist

Brightpoint

The job gives an incredible opportunity to reach out into the community and help those in need. The pros stop there. 

 Wages have not kept up with inflation over the past few years,  and pay is not competitive even in this company's general field of work.  Many employees (almost all of the people I talked to regularly in the company) have left within the last year to go to other companies who offer better benefits.  Counselors, Crisis specialists, managers, and even long time local administrators are dropping like flies due to the apathy from upper management in Chicago in improving things in southern Illinois. 

 The latest meeting where the CEO came down from Chicago to meet with the local offices was a disaster. The CEO displayed incredible ignorant of what we even do or how we operate, and expected people across the board to cancel their important client sessions to attend a meeting where WE answer HIS questions about how this company operates. And when it came time for him to answer what he was going to do to improve the lives of his workers in southern illinois, we listened to him talk for along time, however the answer basically came down to this : nothing.  

 There is a MASSIVE disconnect between Upper management and the actual workers and managers who work with the clients and do the work, and when people have tried to address it, and take time out of their days and weeks to fix this problem, it basically comes down to the fact that they dont want to hear it, we are not their priority. Im not exaggerating, thats exactly how it is, not going to sugarcoat it for you. 

There is very little room for advancement in this company. The yearly raises are peanuts and havent even kept up with inflation, so if youve worked here longer than a few years, youre getting paid less than you were 4 years ago if you do the math. Members of management have left due to the fact that even though they went from a family counselor to management positions, they NEVER got the raise they were promised, so they left and went to work at a company who actually appreciates their effort. 

Ive brought many of these things up to current members of management in hopes of gaining a nugget of wisdom, and maybe to hopefully improve my obviously negative outlook on the company, however the answers i get often go along the lines " thats just how it is", "this field of work isnt meant to make much money", and I've even been told that "This job isnt meant to be a career, its just a stepping stone". Those are all verbatim. There ARE local companies who offer better pay/benefits and the ability to move upward and make a career out them. I will be applying, as those places are where many of my previous colleagues have went. 

Overall morale is incredibly low. The general consensus from what Ive gathered is that: The company asks us to do way too much work, for way too little money, when weve brought it up to upper management we get waved off and ignored, and now we have a pretty big exodus of long time, very talented employees due to the fact that the company is being managed so poorly, and upper management (chicago) puts their focus on itself, instead of the people on the streets doing the real work. Weve lost  employees who have over 20 years in because theyve had enough. 

Management attempts to offset these things by having "peer support groups" and free food and get togethers, which is a nice gesture, however when you have to get further behind on work, in order to attend these things, and cancel appointments with clients that need your help in order to attend, is it really overall a net positive? The due dates dont change just because the company threw a pizza party.  And free pizza and cake doesnt pay the bills.

Another massive annoyance is the overwhelming amount of trainings and meetings. For someone who has clients, constantly having to cancel sessions and move things around to go attend a training for something that you should already know in order to get the job is maddening, especially if you get a client who genuinely needs your help and is struggling.  And it gets even more maddening when you have a high case load. 

The company does not have you complete all your training before you start the job. The training never ends. To some that may sound like a point of pride and a good thing, but its not when the trainings are stuff you either already know, or will almost never use and will need to reteach yourself it when the time comes anyway so why waste the time when you have other stuff you should be doing?

The company attempts to maintain a positive "culture" via positivity and focusing on the good parts of the company. However here lately is feels incredibly forced, shallow, and fake. Because noone is happy here. I cant even recall how many times ive walked through the halls of my offices and hear my colleagues crying at their desks due to the fact that theyre overwhelmed with their workload, and people leaving, and the poor compensation, and the hoops the company expects you to jump through (excessive trainings, pointless meetings) in order to just do the thing people come here to do : Help their clients. 


TLDR: I have lots of love for the people I work with. I thoroughly enjoy helping my clients. However my time here is coming to an end because the company (chicago, NOT local management) does not care about its employees. They will smile, and give false platitudes and attempt to foster a false sense of positivity in order to hide the fact that its just not a good company to work for. 



Contrary to the review previously posted, I have only positive things to say about the current staff; particularly the administration. I can only speak on behalf of the current staff, though, as I am well aware that the previous administrative director was unprofessional/gossipped. The current staff do NOT gossip and administrative meetings are spent focusing on the best practices of child care and how to best accommodate to each child's specific strengths! 
        Both the director and assistant director of the Scott Early Learning Center have worked days much longer than their job descriptions require, as they are truly called to work with children and lead by example as compassionate and motivational leaders for the teaching staff. Their everyday examples of maintaining positive attitudes despite any type of obstacle thrown at them throughout the day have been a true inspiration. If I had to describe them in three words I would choose determined, hardworking, and resilient. 
       I am a teacher at the ELC and reading the previous review of the agency upset me because it is a public display of someone's opinion which is portrayed as factual information. So to uphold my honest character, I will do a brief analysis of the previous posting by addressing my opinions of the topics discussed:
     They (the ELC administrative team) are constantly thinking of the children enrolled and how to best accommodate to their needs and do what is most beneficial for them. I am unsure if any professional work environment has been MORE supportive of me as the administrative staff at the ELC are continually checking up on me, my students, if they could help me in any way, and how my class is doing. I literally could not ask for better supervisors and cannot provide suggestions for improvement in their professional, supportive, and motivational demeanor. The administrative team is often seen throughout the building checking on the individual classroom's teacher-to-student ratios per specific age group. The accusation that teachers sometimes have to wait 45 minutes to get a bathroom break is absolutely absurd as every day I have seen the director and assistant director step in to help out. They are happy to help out and I have yet to hear any complaints from them about any faculty or staff members and I have been employed here for almost two years.

CH+A is a great organization that does great things for the community. However, I worked at the daycare for several years and the same cannot be said unfortunately. The daycare is a revolving door with a new face in the classroom every couple of months! From day one, there was poor communication from the admin team to staff. Several of us were not supported generally in the classroom unless you were their "favorites". Not only is there favoritism among coworkers, but there is also favoritism among children and parents. Teachers also work 9 hour shifts with no bathroom breaks and only a 1 hour lunch period. Admin team is unprofessional, condescending, and sit in the office and gossip all day about families and other coworkers. Admin is not involved in the classrooms and generally walk right past the room even if it is quite obvious that help is needed. Communication is done only thru email (if you're even that lucky) or through sticky notes. Every once in a while you will get a positive compliment given to you, but only though email, not verbally. Director is always on vacation or "working from home", so everything is left to the assistant director. Lead teacher never has any idea what is going on. Relief staff think they run the place, and the cook is crazy! You have to request time off months in advance and they are not flexible with scheduling at all!! There are required monthly Tuesday meetings and other staff events. Trainings are often scheduled on Saturdays and are mandatory! 30 training hours annually!!  Do your research before you apply!!!

I've worked with the agency for five years. First as a foster care case manager and now an adoption specialist. I really like my position. Overall, it's a good company to work for. The PTO time that the agency gives is really good. I always feel like I have so much PTO time all the time. They also give you additional days off, such as a floating holiday and birthday holiday that you can use at anytime. I feel supported by my current supervisor. I feel in the past the support from supervisors hasn't been the greatest in my own personal experience, but I feel like it has gotten better over time. This is like my fourth supervisor I have had in the five years I have worked at the agency. They have allowed us to work from home since the beginning of the pandemic, which I have liked being able to do. I feel like the compensation of the job could be better and I know that our upper management is working on that. I feel like the agency has done a good job with attempting to train newer employees the best that they can, especially with everyone working remotely. I remember when I first started working at the agency I felt very overwhelmed by the job because it is a lot to learn; however, once you are familiar with your job duties it becomes a lot easier. It can be stressful at times so you definitely need to be able to have a good work/life balance. I feel like at least at my particular agency staff members are always willing to help each other out when needed. I think this is a good job to really learn about child welfare. At the end of the day even though it is stressful at times, it is also rewarding at the same time.

I truly loved my time working with my direct team at Brightpoint, especially in the Southern Region. I made lasting connections and felt genuinely supported by the leadership and supervisors there they are nothing short of amazing. Their dedication, guidance, and care for both staff and the families we served are unmatched. I can confidently say I’ll never find leadership that supportive and grounded again.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the executive team and HR department overseeing Brightpoint as a whole. They seem completely out of touch with the hard work being done on the ground. Promises made by executive leadership were not honored in my case, I was told I would receive a retention bonus after being laid off, only to be denied it later. When I followed up, new rules and criteria appeared after the fact, which felt like an attempt to cover up their failure to follow through.

This kind of inconsistency creates mistrust and makes it clear that the executive team is not in alignment with the values demonstrated by the regional staff. While my overall experience at the office level was positive, it’s unfortunate that the executive team’s lack of transparency and accountability could drive out some of the agency’s best workers.

Brightpoint has incredible potential thanks to its regional staff, but if the executive leadership doesn’t improve, they risk losing the very people who make the organization successful.


While I loved my team at Children's Home and Aid and the work that I did, many that work there are overburdened and jaded and that makes for a negative work environment, and also affects job performance. Most upsetting, however, is how they unfairly apply their policies. For instance, those with a masters that have worked there for years are now paid even less than those coming in with only a Bachelors and no experience. They did not grandfather existing employees into this pay rate change. The CEO makes nearly 400K a year and yet they always speak of budget constraints and how they can't issue raises or match the 401k's. They speak of how much they value employees, but the compensation doesn't reflect this at all. I recognize that it is social work, and none of us entered this field for the money, but having these unfair, unequal policies leads to poor morale and the agency would do well to recognize this. It also leads to good people leaving because they become aware that they can be compensated more fairly elsewhere. All of this aside, however, there are some great supervisors there and these folks, along with some great co-workers made my time there very enjoyable. There are also a lot of training opportunities, so it is not all negative.

I started at CHA in their daycare, then got an internship into the foster care department.  After 13m I moved to their foster care program as a Case Aid, and 10m after that I became Caseworker.  Four years after that I became Program Coordinator.
While at first I loved my job.  I loved what I was doing, making a positive difference in the lives of children and families.
The company attempts to push work/life balance, and maybe it's only the program I was in, but in an emotionally exhausting job that's difficult to do.  I was married to my work and after almost seven years there I was finally getting burnt out.  I had four different positions, but 11 supervisors because of the turnover in the program.  This made management even more messy when they always gave different direction/rules.  The coworkers, while we're all social workers and some can be friends for life, some others can be real cut-throat and vindictive mostly because everyone is stressed.  
If you're going into their foster care program, just be warned.  They'll book you with an overabundant caseload, and when another caseworker leaves their caseload is spread to everyone else who is already overworked.
Don't believe the Indeed $39K-$49K expected salary.  They'll only start you out with $30K.  During the state-budget stalemate some of us didn't receive a raise for three years.

The administrative team of the ELC fails to do what is best for the kids and instead they tend to do what is best for themselves. You know a work environment is bad when a teacher puts in their resignation and does not even give two weeks notice because she feels so ill-treated. Kids are constantly being moved from room to room.  Often, the children moved are not kept in proper ratio or are placed in a room that is not age appropriate. Additionally, the teachers have no stability during the work day. Lunch breaks are irregular and at times you have to wait 45 minutes to get a bathroom break. Teachers are burnt out quickly due to low staffing at the agency. Employee turn over rate is high due to the ill-treatment and lack of compassion the administrative team has for their employees. The administrative team reprimands employees in front of other employees and constantly gossip in public areas. There is very little professionalism if any. Think twice before working here!!!! If you have no better option, take the job but be sure to keep your resume up to date.

I worked at Children's Home & Aid for a year. I was an outreach worker full time. The job has it's perks - flexibility, some ability to work from home, and relatively less stressful responsibilities than workers in more direct service positions. All of these perks turned into cons. Being flexible used to mean that I could schedule appointments with clients at my convenience. Eventually ,that turned into me having to work with a client's schedule and being late to dinner or getting home at 9:00 PM. As an outreach worker, I drive a lot. I run errands and transport clients. Your car gets dirty from repeated getting in and out. A lot of wear and tear on your car. You get reimbursed for mileage. It definitely covers your gas, but I'm not sure that it pays off when you have to have oil changes every 6 weeks or get new tires in half the time they should've lasted. My manager was great. My coworkers were great as well. Work can get very stressful when coworkers are out on vacation or on leave. Some days you don't have time to take a lunch, so you're eating your lunch in your car as you're driving to an appointment.

A typical work day can be very hectic but the families were always so amazing. I did not learn much from the Belleville team that I was on and the worst part was the way the supervisors (who are young and lack interpersonal skills) treated me. The supervisor was just not a nice person at all and was so rude that I would try to avoid her most of my time there. The culture with that intact team is very childish, mean girl, and very unprofessional. I would warn anyone who wanted to get into the Intact team at Brightpoint to stay away. I have seen how they have ran off people who were really good workers. The hardest part of the job was definitely the lack of support for the supervisor. the most enjoyable part was making a difference with the families that I worked with. Brightpoint is a great company but they really need to examine who they place in a supervisor's role when trying to create teams that they want to thrive within the company. I would still be there if it was not for the poor leadership I had while I was there. 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Home visitor 41 salaries reported	$20.92 per hour
Early childhood teacher 34 salaries reported	$51,279 per year
Foster care specialist 27 salaries reported	$54,952 per year
Therapist 18 salaries reported	$55,941 per year
Family support specialist 18 salaries reported	$24.47 per hour

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