youth mentor

mental health therapist

mentor

licensed practical nurse

special education teacher

Calo Programs

You will be put on a 12 hour work schedule. This included four lettered schedules: two "day shifts" 9am-9pm and two "night shifts" 9pm-9am.
You will either work Sun-Tues or Wed-Fri with alternatiing Saturdays on both.
This means you work 36 (closer to 40) hour work weeks alternatiing with 48 (over 50) hour weeks.                                                                                   
The job itself requires you to coach and parent either preteens (9-14) or teens (13-18). These students have a variety of behavioral issues. Some hurt themselves, some hurt others. You will encounter a wide range of problems. Some of these kids just have issues connecting to loved ones, while others regularly assualt and antagonize everyone around them.

You will be required to train in SCM, which is about verbal de-escalation and potentially physical restraints. Students can become such a danger to themselves or others that they need to be placed in a hold until they calm down. You do run a risk of being bit or scratched, punched or kicked. However, the majority of restraints will end with zero injuries to either you or the student.

The main issues you will face is that we are low staffed, pay is not bad but not great, the mental exhaustion you will face can be too much, and you will work with kids you can't help.

I definitely think this is a love/hate job. You will grow immensely as a person and you will have some of the greatest experiences of your life.
Really helping a kid, keeping them safe, talking with them through their problems - it really is amazing.

This isn't a job where you can put yourself on cruise mode. It does require you to actively be present.

Calo prides itself on providing exceptional services, and expects nothing less of their employees. Benefit packages are great with several options. Paid time off was generous. The culture is great and onsite management is awesome to work with. However, they are growing faster than they can keep up with. They often accept new admissions while depending on bed overlap. There is always too much work to be done and it is impossible to complete it within the typical 40 hour work week. As such, expect to have to take work home with you and to spend an additional 10-15 hours of work, even after working a 50 hour work week. Additionally, administration is completely removed from the facility and often depends on onsite administration input to make decisions instead of actually observing the needs of the facility first hand and making decisions based on this experience. Overall, I do believe they are trying to improve this through bi-weekly employee surveys.

Just another textbook example of a corporation that's gotten greedy: huge emphasis on bringing in more kids/more money, much less attention and effort goes to actually making sure students' and staff's needs are met.  
Each employee--including management--is responsible for the work-load of two or three, with pay that doesn't compensate for that fact.  (The benefits are nice, except for the medical insurance package offered, which is a joke.  Free meals are a plus too, opportunity for growth, staff camaraderie--it just doesn't balance out.)
In a place where rules and protocol correlate directly with safety, changes in these guidelines are frequent and never communicated properly--training is virtually non-existent and the treatment model CALO uses doesn't allow for punishment/consequences. The company is meant to be wide-spread and all-encompassing, with so many individual departments that don't make an effort to coordinate schedules or events that every day is a shitshow.  
At this point, the kids recognize this, and it's nearly impossible to work on growth and behavioral issues when there's no respect.  We merely corral a zoo.


I work with AAT and I work with the canines and the boys throughout each day I work face to face and I try and help support the coach in the team home with empowering them instead of just stepping in.  My Direct Supervisor is 5 star. The work place culture that I know about is one of positive and safe feeling to work here.  The hardest part of my job is having to say "no you are not there yet" when they want to advance with a canine.  I would like every teen boy student to be in healthy relationship with a canine but students need to be safe with themselves, others and to be able to take care of themselves before taking care of another living breathing life. The most enjoyable part of my job is to have the amazing relationships with the boys that I do treasure while they are here at Calo on their journey.  I feel so honored to meet them.

Calo is the first job I have had that has offered insurance for outside of management,  they have free food. Full salad bar vegetarian options. For staff and students. Calo has given me the opportunity to work overtime which is sometimes not even a thing. So if I need extra money I generally can find some overtime. I also have been able to grow outside of calo financially bc of the continual increases in pay throught my 2 years at calo and the chances to try different programs and opportunities to move departments.  I like working at calo and working with the kids, watching them grow through treatment and experience some of the more exciting sides of calo... ice cream days, park or pool days. Boating canoing rock climbing going to the movies. These are all neat experiences to have alone but with a big group of people it makes it even more exciting. One experience I cherish is when students go into foster care with a canine. Watching them grow and adapt to being responsible and watching the bond grow between student and canine. Very good place to work

If you love to work with preteens and teens, if you love excitement every day, if you love spending your days at school and being active, Calo is the place for you. It can be tough, you have to have thick skin, but it can also be very rewarding and the reward outweighs the cost everyday. You have a daily routine with schedules to follow and there is black and white for those that like the rules but there is also something different to look forward to every shift you work. Is this student going to open up, is this student going to finalize their adoption, is this student going to transition home, etc? At the end of the day, you get to go home, knowing you helped change these children and get their family one step closer to pure joy.

I got a job there and I was super excited. I've been a CNA for a long time and I've only worked with elderly clients. I thought the job would be a good change of pace for me. Considering I've mainly worked
with elderly individuals.Everything was great until I mentioned there were 2 concerts I wanted to attend. They were both over a month away. Instead of talking to me about it they just got really weird. They acted so weird about it that it made me cry a little bit. I even suggested that I could cancel my events I had planned. The CEO was like no you don't have to do that. They never addressed the days I had stuff planned though. They ended up firing me over the weekend. This place has literally had people in there that has molested the children there. They didn't even get fired. They just got put on another shift and molested a kid again. There is definitely something wrong with this place.

Do your best to not be put on leave. HR Director has no regard for the life of their workers. If you don't mind getting beat the heck out of and not being allowed to use assist holds until every other option is exhausted, and blurring the lines between personal and professional life then go for it. No advancement with a criminal justice degree. Advancement options only to those with business, sociology and psychology degrees and even veterinarians. The staff that handle the clients are amazing. Some of the clients are pretty awesome themselves, but manipulative like no ones business. They say they will help you and are understanding but they're not. You either work your life away like a pack mule or you're gone.

CALO has some great ideas behind it. The programs can, and does, work.

However, the rate at which it works is not spoken about. The truth is that the majority of the students who come to CALO leave with the same trauma and troubles.
Many of which go straight to another facility.

Things CALO will not tell you: staff is forced to act as janitors,shifts are consistently understaffed, shift coverage is incredibly difficult to get, PTO cannot be taken on holidays, and the staff turnover rate is nearly 80% over the first year.

Calo is a great place to work, if you have the heart for the kids we work with! If your heart is not in it, this is not the job for you. This job is not just a paycheck! You are reqiring brains here to help heal the traumatic affects of abuse and neglect. Calo's culture is wonderful. Calo tries to recognize all individuals that are going above and beyond. The stress of working with the students pays off when you see them healed and going home to a connected family.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Youth mentor 9 salaries reported	$21.00 per hour
Mental health therapist 34 salaries reported	$75,000 per year
Mentor 1 salary reported	$21.00 per hour
Licensed practical nurse 5 salaries reported	$33.60 per hour
Special education teacher 1 salary reported	$50,000 per year

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