foster care case manager

direct care worker

Childrens Hope Alliance

Reviews for this company have recently seen a rise due to HR requesting that current staff leave positive reviews. However, I would like to emphasize that a review should be well-rounded before it should be taken seriously; anything that is presented as "all bad" or "all good" is more than likely swimming in bias. As such, I will do my best to summarize what was great about Children's Hope Alliance, as well as what is truly wrong with this organization.

The Good: This company has ample room for growth if you can withstand the terrible working conditions, unfair management practices, and borderline unethical standards. Safety for both staff and children is questionable, and there have been several injuries during the short amount of time that I have been here. However, the organization offers a fairly nice benefits package, and most supervisors are laid back and welcoming of questions and direction. In most positions, you will find that supervisors "worked their way up" into their role, so they understand the ins and outs of what you will be doing. This is both good and bad, but I'll focus on the good aspect of this for now.

The Bad: Being a non-profit, this organization cuts corners left and right when it comes to the implementation of numerous policies and procedures. As noted above, injuries abound here, and that includes both children/clients and staff. Although many supervisors are fairly gregarious and understanding of your needs (due to having operated in lower roles at some point in the past, themselves), this also comes with the problem that a LOT of leadership roles are being held by people grossly underqualified for them. There are genuinely "supervisors" who have no experience supervising or leading a team; they just stayed in their position long enough to climb the ranks, but they are not emotionally prepared to deal with the struggles that accompany the position. Further, you have individuals who are quite indifferent about their role, so they will make decisions with their best interest in mind, rather than what will be best for the progress and wellbeing of the staff/children. Many standards and practices are grounded in experimentation or favoritism, and there is a high level of turnover in many departments. Company morale is quite low, and the organization is critically understaffed across both residential and educational facilities.

The Ugly: This is an organization that is really meant to be a "stepping stone" for new grads. Many individuals who work here started out as CYCWs and had few other options (or were content to remain where they were). The company does not hire much "high skill" labor into roles, which is not good in many ways. Ideas and practices remain stale and unimaginative as a result of the same underqualified, lower-education individuals cycling through, as opposed to them employing advanced labor in these roles from the start. Hiring from within can be a good thing, but this organization does not do this well at all, and it seems as though their primary concern is having a warm body to meet legal guidelines, rather than considering what is the most effective for the adolescents receiving services from here. 

Overall, Children's Hope Alliance is quite a mixed bag. It is unfair to tout this company as one that is only self-serving and dissatisfying. It has quite a few merits, and in particular I would recommend this as a great starting opportunity for new graduates who aren't sure what they want to do with their lives. However, for individuals with a more advanced skillset or advanced degree, this is not a company to pursue employment. Preference is given to those with relationships to others in positions of power, and every department is understaffed. You will be expected to perform nearly flawlessly in a myriad of ways, and administrative support is nearly non-existent.

I loved the idea of working with this company when I interviewed, the job seemed right up my alley, the thought of helping hurt/abused/abandoned children gave me a sense of hope and happiness. In reality though, the other youth care workers did not seem to care at all, only one, in my opinion, had a passion for his job and I was lucky to have been able to work with him pretty often. The others would let children do whatever they wanted (most being very much against the rules), they were extremely rude to the children at times, not mindful of their needs, when they did acknowledge their needs they reacted in a way as if it was a bother to have to do anything for them, it was so sad and discouraging. These children come here with no idea what their futures hold, they're sad, stressed, angry, they're feeling every emotion at once and your job is to communicate with them in a way that makes them feel like they're appreciated and have worth, that their feelings are valid but that there are better ways of dealing with them. Only one person that I worked with in my home, which was the highest level home (trauma, abuse, depression, mental illnesses, anger issues, etc. not your typical foster home) at our facility, ever used the training for communication that we receive prior to starting the job, the others all reacted poorly to high stress situations and bothered when child approached them with a problem. I felt most of them were only there for the money, this job is not the kind of job that you take lightly and solely stick around for because of the paycheck, you aren't hurting yourself or your fellow employees, you're causing detriment to the kids. The management is rarely present, they tell you in the beginning that you'll be evaluated heavily but I only had an evaluation once during my time there and it was after a very intense situation in the home had taken place, just so they could evaluate how I aided in handling it and also to decompress. Overall, I think the company has good values but poor execution of those values.

The only thing I can really say is that if you care about your mental well being and safety, don't work here. Grandfather Home has gone downhill fast in the last year. There was little to no support from direct supervisors, upper management blamed staff for everything when some things genuinely were not our fault, the night security is completely useless and incompetent, and the local police were so over Grandfather Home that they wouldn't do much in a situation where lives are at stake. I did not go into the job expecting it to be happy fun times. I am a very strong-willed and strong-minded person, and I couldn't even last a year. I left the job a while ago, and it's taken me this long to gather my thoughts about it enough to write a review. I originally wasn't going to, but I feel like in a way, I should warn people who are trying to apply here: it's not worth it. 

If you are going into psychology, social work, etc, this is not the experience I would recommend. The reality of the situation is that the organization itself is in shambles, and it's too far gone to help the children anymore. I also genuinely don't believe this campus will be open much longer. I give it a 1-2 years. 

Just as a side note, there were also a lot of things that were done in staffing shortages that were technically illegal (e.g., not having 2 AWAKE staff in PRTF buildings...among other things). They will also hire literally anyone that walks into the door because they never have enough staff, so you can imagine what kind of problems that can create. 

Basically, I am not trying to "trash" this organization as a disgruntled former employee. I left on a good note, and I was in good graces with supervisors and coworkers. I just want people to know what they are getting into before signing up to work here.

Children's Hope Alliance is the result of a merger by Barium Springs and Grandfather Home for Children the spring of 2014. As with any change, progress can be hard and slow at times. However the mission of the agency (to provide a safe, healing journey for hurting children and families-creating hope now and in the future.) Is ever present in all the changes. I have been fortunate enough to hold two very different positions within the organization. First as a direct care giver to the youth in the group home facility. That was at once the hardest and most rewarding and wonderful job I have ever had. It was thankless for the most part, there was a lot of turnover, but when you are dealing with a population so deeply traumatized by years of abuse and neglect, it is not going to be all rainbows and butterflies. I was supported by my supervisors at the time and I knew I had a team I could go to for questions and help. Next I transferred into a more administrative position. Again I have an amazing team who are very supportive and helpful. While there are definitely times when individuals will not see eye-to-eye, I never doubt that everyone I work with has the same focus, to help hurting children and families in NC. No one should ever expect to work for a non-profit and make loads of money and never have a stressful day. But keep in mind... our clients wish for our worst days. Our bad day is nothing compared to what these children and families have experienced. If you want to be part of an organization that is truly making a difference than you want to work at Children's Hope Alliance.

The HR department had wonderful employee's who were interested in finding quality persons to be trained as CYCW's. That is where the training ended. Some of the employee's men were trained, while myself a woman was not. Most of the time I was left to watch six children at a time. My partners were doing one on one interventions (outside.) My house supervisor was MIA. When she did make a rare appearance she promised incentive gifts, soda, and boxes of chocolates to the children. After being on the job for a month I was given a written warning for asking to use the restroom. Filthy comments were made in reference to female hygiene products (non of which I even use anymore.) I was insulted, put down and degraded as an employee just for being middle aged and a women without an expensive cell phone to entertain the children with. The house supervisor NEVER spent a minute training me, but made sure I was insulted every time she spoke to me. On 12/16/15 I was instructed to come in on my day off for a "staff meeting". I was pulled aside insulted by two staff members while another woman stood and stared at me with bugged eyes. I was "let go" one week prior to Christmas. I never did a thing except arrive on time, work as instructed, and waited to be trained by a supervisor. When decent Christian workers are insulted and threatened in the workplace it's a shame. The house supervisor appeared to be a spoiled vindictive woman. I'm very happy to not be under her dictatorship any longer. Age discrimination is alive and well at the GHFC.

I disagreed many times with upper management and their lack of therapeutic interventions with the children. Upper management and staff only came into the homes for emergencies or crisis interventions. As a direct staff member they would disregard our request for better materials and activities to keep the children engaged. We had very little funding for activities. I would have to remind myself that these children have experienced so much trauma in their home environment, so I would always learn the child and get to know their triggers and build off their strengths to build positive rapport with each individual child. I felt the upper staff didn’t take time to get to know the children and so when they would come into the homes and try to deescalate it didn’t work because they didn’t know the child.

I feel if staff and upper management was properly trained to use DBT emotion regulation, interpersonal effectiveness, understanding the dialects of a situation, and distress tolerance they could then model train the children and use therapeutic approaches that would teach the children how to use analytical thinking skills when they have strong emotions or triggered.



The agency has become a major disappointment. The higher level management do not care about the staff nor the kids only the profit of the programs. They will act one way to you but then go behind your back and talk really bad about you to your coworkers. Unfortunately the residential program like any work place can become a rumor mill but the higher level management team are the ones that start a good majority of the rumors. They don't listen to their staff and only do what they want to do with no direct experience with in this type of residential program. It has been disappointing to see what the residential program once was and it was it has become. I would not recommend working here if you want to feel not only valued as an employee but as a person as well. The kids should always come first and unfortunately with the new changes they don't. However, the direct care staff and the front line teams are absolutely amazing to work with. They work hard everyday and are always willing to go the extra mile. 

Children’s Hope Alliance is the combination of Barium Springs and Grandfather Home for Children joining forces to serve children and families throughout North Carolina. They work hard to provide a safe, healing journey for hurting children and families, creating hope now and in the future. Their comprehensive services and programs are designed to give hope to our clients by providing a safe home, healing their hurt and encouraging a healthy start.

 If your only reason for wanting a job here is because of the above mentioned mission you will be setting yourself up for failure. It's an excellent place to start for entry level employees. Of coarse this has it's downsides as well. Expect to put in extra commitment when working with a nonprofit.

Organizations are still in the process of merging which leads to several inconsistencies thru ought the organization.

Interning for Children's Hope Alliance, formerly Barium Springs, was a very enjoyable and educating experience. There was a strong emphasis on team work and quality care for youth and their families. Any given day could be different duties such as data collection, working with families that have traumatic brain injuries, behavioral problems, troubled youth, substance abuse and/ or developmental disabilities. I was also responsible for reaching out to community members for donations for those families in need. The hardest part of the job was running out of funding and no longer being able to assist families in need. The most enjoyable part of this job was seeing the faces of the families and youth when being able to assist them with special needs equipment or even items as simple as toiletries. My co-workers were hard working and dedicated to their careers and they were excellent role models for my future career in the mental health field.

What is the best part of working at the company?
The leader ship is strong and invested in their staff. They work hard to make people feel included and valued in our very committed to a family, friendly environment, and culture. I loved working there and would still be working there if I had not moved out of state.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
This was not a stressful organization to work for at all. They were very very supportive and provided all the tools we needed to do our job. I think the only stress is in thinking about the pain that the families we serve are going through, but there’s a lot of satisfaction in knowing that we helped to relieve that pain and suffering through  our work.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Leadership provides a very collaborative and supportive culture, and works hard to connect with employees and make them feel valued.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Every day is different and dealing with families in crisis. We all worked together to accommodate the needs of the families we served.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Foster care case manager 1 salary reported	$53,487 per year
Direct care worker 1 salary reported	$20,000 per year

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