family support counselor

family support worker

child care teacher

preschool teacher

domestic violence advocate

Children & Families of Iowa

If you are wanting to do direct social work with families then being an In-Home counselor is the perfect job for you. In this position you created goals to work on with families that were in need of enhancement opportunities, and had the opportunity to help them process through the need for change.  The hardest part of the job is wanting to help families that don't want help.  Or spending your time to track down and connect with a family, when they have been purposely avoiding your phone calls and knocks on the door.   

This position offered a flexible work schedule which was both positive and negative. The positive:  you have a 9am dentist appointment-- you could work 11-7pm that day instead of taking sick time.  Your daughter has a field trip at her school?  That's ok! Just schedule to see clients that evening or weekend to make up the hours.  The negative:  notice how both of the above scenario's included working nights or weekends?  You are expected to meet with clients when they are available.  During the school year expect to work until 7pm most days seeing after school kids. Sometimes later depending upon if you have the transport the child or not.   Management was supportive of the individual needs of my family in regards to scheduling, but it was also expected that the clients were seen.   Sometimes this resulted in working 12+ hour days.  Or you'd be on the road all day, and still have a report due, so you'd be working late into the night to get the report submitted on time.  Outside professionals that collaborate with you on cases and clients, don't care that you worked all weekend long and are scheduled to take Tuesday off.  They will still call or email on Tuesday wanting information about the client.   The company offers you a work-cell phone which is nice, but also frustrating because people feel that since you have a cell phone it should be answered ALWAYS Mon-Fri 8-5pm even if you have the day off.  Clients call when ever they want, not having consideration for the time of day.  This is definitely a position where you have to set clear boundaries and learn to shut work off, because it's easy to get pulled into working 24/7.   

My co-workers were awesome, and we worked together to get through struggling times with clients.  My direct supervisor was supportive, and easy to talk too.  This job is both rewarding and challenging.

I can't rate the work life/ family Balance, nor the pay because I was placed as an intern. However, the Directors Joy and Teresa are VERY knowledgeable and will mentor you with their knowledge. 
The other staff are as professional as professional gets! I've shadowed with just about every professional working at this location and every one of them seems to go above and beyond for their clients. They are serving many families and children that have experiencedone so much trauma in their young lives. 
I recently shadowed the YEP program. It's a program for young adults and stands for Youth Empowerment. I wish these services were around when I was young. The ladies in charge of this group continually strive to help our youth get on track with their lives providing so much assistance. 
Everyone at the Fort Dodge facility seems to be very happy with their jobs and working for their clients. 
If one would love to learn what type of Human Services worker you want to be, ask to intern here. I will never regret it.

Very unstable place to work. You are given more work than you can handle with unrealistic deadlines! Management is very unappreciative! Don’t properly train you for all of your job duties and are aggravated when the task is not done properly. Take your concerns about having such a negative work environment with the head supervisor of the office you work in to a higher supervisor for the company and no one cares! CFI as a whole has a terrible turn around rate but don’t care to address the issues as to why! The CEO can’t possibly know about all of the disrespectful and questionable ethical actions that take place within the organization because if she did I feel that she would be taking the initiative to correct the problem. No one is held accountable for their action, it is always someone else’s fault when something goes wrong! CFI is mentally draining to work for! Please just think twice before accepting a job at CFI. If you don’t you will be looking for another job before you know it!

This was a great job for building social work experience. It's nice being able to have some flexibility in arranging your own schedule. The training provided is super helpful, not only for the job itself, but for life I'm general. I felt valued and supported as a worker. I have nothing but great things to say about the managers I worked under.
A big con is the stressors of the job itself. Definitely heavy stuff to work with. It's hard to keep work turned off when at home. Especially with having a work phone and computer always with you. Some situations can also feel a little unsafe being out in the community meeting one on one with strangers in 'sketchy' places.
Didn't feel like the best fit for a young married woman/ someone with a young family. But I would recommend it more so to someone with out kids, has older kids, doesn't have a spouse, or has a spouse with weird hours/ is gone a lot.

This was a horrible place to work. They did provide a car, gas card, computer, and phone but car was deducted from my pay check. I found there was no support, high turn over and shady operations. There was no consistency in rules, too many things varied case to case that made no sense, on the whim of the supervisor. Always saying one thing but doing another. They train one way and function another. Work meetings they say lots of good things and never do them. Bad communication, I did not hear about changes in cases in a timely manner if at all. They were also not concerned enough about my personal safety. I have classmates that do the same job as I did in different companies in the the same area and their experiences are very positive compared to mine. I was part time but they would have stacked me with hours. They will over work you if you let them. Place was toxic for me.

I meet with parents on a one-on-one basis and talk about anything that is currently going on in their life. I do not write reports, so everything said is kept between them and I. My main goal is to help parents see what mistakes they made or are making and help them get in the right mind set and correct path to get their children back into their custody. The hardest part of my job is watching parents choose drugs and other people over their own children. I most enjoy all of the different people I meet and just knowing that I am trying to help them get their life back in the right direction.

A typical day at work involves collaborating with colleagues, addressing tasks, and adapting to changing priorities. I've learned the value of effective communication, time management, and the importance of continuous learning. Management fosters a supportive environment, encourages growth, and values input from all team members. The workplace culture emphasizes teamwork, innovation, and a commitment to excellence. The most challenging aspect of the job is managing complex projects under tight deadlines, while the most rewarding part is witnessing the impact of our collective efforts and achieving successful outcomes.

I really loved working with CFI. I got to supervise visit's with foster children and their biological parent (s). I got to quide and coucil parents with their doings and help them get on the right track with what they needed done. The hardest part of this job was when parents or parent didn't want to change because they already lost their other child or children so why try for your last one...And I had to do the last visit where the parents showed no emotion. The people that I worked with were very friendly and easy to talk to and would always help when you needed it. I was always there to help them also, it was very easy to get along with them.

Visiting homes, supervising visits, attending court, writing reports. The office side of work on this job can be done at home which I love. I have been and FSRP/FCS for the entirety of my employment at CFI. This was my first job out of undergrad and a wonderful experience. Children and Families of Iowa is the strongest non-profit serving the Des Moines area and am lucky to be a part of it. I truly feel respected and supported by the leadership and the organization. They look for ways to support their employees. I have gotten two raises since being here a year and a half. I have never felt so supported by superiors. 

Everyone at CFI is mission driven, compassionate, professional, innovative, and family focused!  I am so happy to be able to partner with so many amazing staff!  I get the honor of doing this daily that are committed to their clients and roles at CFI and outside of CFI.  The job our staff do is hard work but our leaders are supportive and care about self care and work life balance.  The organization is invested in equity at all sectors.  CFI continues to work to improve daily!

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Family support counselor 18 salaries reported	$20.13 per hour
Family support worker 15 salaries reported	$17.30 per hour
Child care teacher 3 salaries reported	$15.50 per hour
Preschool teacher 2 salaries reported	$16.00 per hour
Domestic violence advocate 5 salaries reported	$17.70 per hour

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