mental health therapist

youth counselor

mental health technician

residential counselor

facilitator

Fred Finch Youth Center

FFYC is a $33 million/per year non-profit umbrella organization that handles many different projects in several cities in California. In taking care of young adults and children with special needs, it does very well and is constantly seeking to improve itself.

A typical day for IT begins with addressing user and network node connectivity problems. The network engineer then works on several projects simultaneously on OSI layers 1, 2, and 3.  Each week may include 1-5 meetings with staff and vendors.  A typical day may include supervising vendors on-site. Airtravel might be expected with less than 8 hours notice.

Management can be quirky, but tends to let employees work without micro-managing.  Straightforward communication can be a problem and the month may feature official and unofficial "training", some of which is mandated by local and federal governments, some of which appears to be idiosyncratic according to the tastes of the local manager.  Management constantly seeks 24x7 support. Management is sometimes understanding, sometimes not.

Co-workers and user clients can be stressed from work overload and/or high expectations so the job requires diplomatic skills.  Hardest part of the job is setting limits on what is expected and sticking to those limits tactfully.  

Most enjoyable parts of the job include informal atmosphere and interactions with very good people as well as the client population. Working for non-profit psych/medical organization can be very satisfying.

Some managers work around the clock and expect work through holidays/weekends. It is typical to find Finance working past 9 PM on Friday night.

If you have the heart for service, this is a wonderful company to work for! I worked for Fred Finch on two different occasions because the company and people made it so great! The supervision was great and trainings were better than other places I've worked. Benefits are actually very competitive (although pay could be better, they are competitive with what's local). I found my supervisors to be generous about allowing flex and time off for self-care and family needs which is important to prevent burnout. 

I enjoyed the work we did as I always felt like we were making a difference. I found it rewarding and special to get to collaborate with so many service providers and services involved in our client's lives. 

The only con/reason I left was out of their control and that is the ridiculous amount of paperwork and high "productivity" demand which are really set by the County and not the company.  After time, I experienced difficulty balancing the paperwork with the work itself. Unfortunately, that's the nature of the beast of caring for the kids, families, and clients they serve. Like many Medi-cal related programs, I think many of us also leave for higher paying jobs with far less paperwork stress.

Poor poor poor management!!!!!!! Stay away for your own good! Demanding, lack of actual support, unvalidating, they don't actually care about thier employees and cut them loose no matter how long they've been there if you don't conform to their rules. Save yourself and look somewhere else. After witnessing multiple multiple microaggressions, gaslighting, unprofessional behavior, lack of boundaries with management, cruel cruel behavior. They promote the MOST toxic people and rid off the ones who have thier heart in this work. They take your little happy and excited beating heart and crush it, suck out all the happiness and creativity and slam more and more documents, protocols, policies/procedures. They require monthly Affinity work which I am totally for...however I believe upper management needs more training on this. They require us to put in all of this emotional labor on top of our already labor filled jobs and I believe it is just so the agency looks good from an outsiders perspective. Those of us that work here know that it is all talk as I continue to watch my co-workers and self struggle and treated maliciously by management. 



This is the worst company I ever worked for, administration management is unprofessional they like to play immuture games with staffs and set staffs up for failure so they can get rid of staffs they dislike. One manager comes to work with her mood swing and take her frustration out on staffs and sometimes yell at them. The company don't care enough about staffs to provide ergonomics workstation, a lot of the desks and chairs were donated from the 70's,80's & 90's which are worn out. They have some of the worst working condition, old smelly building that has mold growth and mold smell, and the company does not provide handicap accessible for wheelchair and disable person.If a employee has a problem with a manager there's no luck in resolving issue with HR and manager immediate supervisor because they will side with the manager. The company shows lack of appreciate toward staffs, they can't even provide free lunches, when management do give to its staffs it's a $5 Safeway giftcard, dollar store item, or something they made with the office supplies which is pathetic. I never seen a company with such a huge turn over in staffs like FFYC, people come and go because management is unprofessional and they will over work you for a little bit of money.

I’ve been working here for well over a year. I’ve learned so much from the amazing long term staff and management. From my perspective, management is extremely supportive and takes quick action to genuine issues that staff and participants experience. Being part of a team here means you are part of the FFYC family. There are meals made for staff and program participants for holidays. The long term staff and management  support others through work challenges with participants and families. For hourly employees in the Avalon and New Yosemite programs there are opportunities for growth and raises that are provided yearly and occasionally twice a year depending on union negations. I highly recommend working here for those with little experience in the mental health field. The job can be difficult at times due to varying levels of support, care needs and behaviors from participants. 

This is an organization where some managers like to play nasty games to their department employees.  Managers played favorites by assigning good promotion potential projects to employees they liked.  Employees that have more work experience and better knowledge are given mundane and busy work.  I knew an employee with a PhD degree doing clerical and data entry busy work.  While another employee who is sociable but is a nasty backstabber and bully with lesser knowledge and background gets higher level work.  Managers sided with bullies to force victims out.  Managers also assigned duties to employees that they don't like but giving tasks that they are never good at.   Employee with never get promoted because they will never be outstanding for doing the tasks that are their weakness.   The workplace had a very heavy workload but very low pay.  Hard work do not get rewarded or promoted.  Medical and dental benefits are very cheap with high copays.

I mainly loved the families I worked with, the incredible FFYFS benefits, the access to all sorts of wonderful trainings, the flexible work schedule, some management and workmates who genuinely give a darn about supporting our working-class families, the campus itself is beautiful (Oakland), work-life balance boundaries were encouraged, and I was given so much in house mentoring and clinical & professional support. The cons were the pay (but again the bangin’ benefits and professional development in large part made up for it), Medí-Cal paperwork, and feeling like a capitalist cog in the non-profit industrial complex wheel sometimes (the productivity expectations were kinda intense).

Working at Fred Finch Youth Center provided me with a valuable experience as a clinician. The program I worked in went through some changes in management that turned out to be quite positive, and it was clear and evident that the management wished to support their staff through encouraged self-care and work/life balance practices. I felt during my time there, however, that there were far too many meetings required that often impeded on time needed to fulfill other responsibilities. I had a fantastic supervisor who was incredibly supportive. The program director was also quite phenomenal! One drawback to this job is that there is a tremendous amount of paperwork required by the County. It can be a lot for a person who is accustomed to simple clinical charting.

This place was one of the most toxic environments I have worked for. Community mental health is challenging but also has the potential to be rewarding and helpful to the clients. However, management banked on employees feeling morally obligated to help the clients no matter what the cost. Working with MediCal is always exhausting and time consuming, but management here made documentation feedback more demoralizing than actually helpful. They promote who aren’t competent to be supervisors because they are the people who make the least waves. It is definitely run like a for profit company. Also, someone mentioned the affinity groups, those would be good if they were actually holding people accountable. 

I enjoyed Fred Finch facility while working there.  I was just getting into this field.  I developed the understanding that I had a special technique that young people seemed to open up to and trust.  I couldn't tell you what it was I guess it is just a natural thing for me.  I enjoyed the planning activities, the educational part with school being right there, the counselors and therapist right there on the school grounds, the different levels of behaviors and mental emotional diagnosis brings about a sense of having to have more patience than one would normally have.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Mental health therapist 23 salaries reported	$38.35 per hour
Youth counselor 6 salaries reported	$25.58 per hour
Mental health technician 27 salaries reported	$28.32 per hour
Residential counselor 35 salaries reported	$26.08 per hour
Facilitator 12 salaries reported	$28.28 per hour

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