counselor

shelter advocate

foster care specialist

foster care case manager

foster care case aide

Guardian Angel Community Services

My experience with Guardian Angel Community Services was disappointing. During my time there, I observed what I felt was a lack of transparency, poor communication from leadership, and limited responsiveness to staff concerns. Issues related to scheduling, staffing coverage, and workplace concerns often went unaddressed or were not communicated clearly, creating a stressful and frustrating work environment.
What ultimately led me to leave was witnessing a coworker being terminated shortly after raising concerns and asking questions regarding agency operations. This experience raised concerns for me about how employee feedback and workplace concerns are handled within the organization.
I also found that communication from supervisors was frequently delayed, and staff concerns were not always given the attention they deserved. The overall lack of support and responsiveness made it difficult to feel valued as an employee.
While others may have had different experiences, my experience left me feeling discouraged and unsupported. Based on what I personally experienced, I would not recommend Guardian Angel Community Services as an employer.

Since I wasn’t given the opportunity to have an exit interview to improve the company…Management had no time to train anyone. Foster Care was understaffed, even supervisors had caseloads. Two weeks into the job i stated to a supervisor that i was already overwhelmed and lost. They stated it would get better and always feel free to come to anyone with questions (no ones ever at the office). A month to a month and half in, talking to my supervisor about the same feelings again, they stated they would take time to train me on things as they didn’t want me to quit. Then when arriving to office for training, supervisor would leave on long lunch breaks then go to meetings (missing the open window of time to train me) or not be there and not inform that they would be remote. My supervisor would often choose to work from home or be on vacation. Texting 20+ questions a day is not an effective way to do a job with no prior experience. Talking to management didn’t help, just heard it takes a year to get accustomed and that management also had emotional breakdowns for months at the beginning of their time. After talking to other departments in the agency, the same is true for other departments as well.  What the company does truly helps the community, if you’re willing to figure it out all on your own and have no issues being tossed out to sea and told to swim then this is the place for you. 

The mission and goals of GACS are on par with what social services should be putting back into the community. The advocates, counselors, case managers, etc, are all there for the right reasons. The issues within the company reside solely in the upper management's ability to actually support their employees financially, emotionally, and professionally. Everything requires hoops to be jumped through in order to be approved or funded and the trust C-Suite and Directors have in their staff is often micro-managed and vetted in order to align directly with the higher management's beliefs. Although this is normal for most companies, especially for ones that are grant or federally funded, it does not reflect the ideology that we are doing this to help people and build them up. The work life balance is non-existent and often shows that the salary or hourly compensation is lackluster for the labor. The mission of the company is to help people live a life free from restraints and abuse, but does so by controlling/over surveilling their employees. There is absolutely no reason why there shouldn't be a more proactive approach in supporting employees versus waiting until something happens or needs to be corrected that is met with criticism rather than education and support. 

This company has great goals but not the right people working there to reach the needs of the clients. 
I worked in APS and the first day in the office I was told “good luck” “don’t let them overload you” “just try your best to keep up”. Within my first three months two of my coworkers left and a supervisor left. The environment seemed cold and unfriendly. I thought it was strange but didn’t think much of it. But if you don’t meet the aesthetic you will definitely know. 
The training and supervision was the biggest issue before my training was done I already had cases. Within a couple weeks I had a caseload of 30+ and going into the field on my own before being properly trained. I then started to get reprimanded by my supervisors for not doing things correctly but it was stuff that was never trained or explained to me. I was then told “if you have to work 60 hours a week then that’s what I will need to do.” With no compensation. I will say I learned a lot working there. But the turnover rate is very high and it’s mainly due to the supervisors and being overworked. 

This place has a high turnover rate for a reason. They don't train you well and just throw you into the chaos of it all. They try to entice you with false promises and reassurances but management only tells you what you want to hear. There's so much pressure that it caused me to have a mental break after about 6 months. They don't provide a work phone so you're forced to use your personal phone for work, which can lead to clients calling you at two in the morning. You can forget about your personal life because there are no set hours especially being a salaried worker. They did rotating weekends for on-call but since you're using your personal phone you're basically on call all the time if one of your clients is in crisis. When management doesn't want to talk to an angry client they send you in even when you don't have answers or know what to tell them. Overall, tread with caution if you care about your well being. 



I enjoyed the people who worked at the agency, but there was a lacking in terms of management at times. I felt the agency ambitions for increasing the number of clients served was at the expense of its employees. I typically had upwards of 15 to 16 clients at a time spread out across most of the northern half of the state.  There was a high burn out rate in the agency and many coworkers left within a year or shortly after a year (myself included). I left because I was working up to 15 to 20 hours a week more than what my salary was covering. Often times I was expected to work upwards of 50-60 hours a week without overtime or compensation. You can learn a lot from them, but career wise I did not find the work load sustainable.

It may seem like a great place to work at first, but the longer you’re there, you start to realize it’s not really that great. You are micro managed, underpaid, and talked down to. The trainings do give a lot of knowledge but are also very time consuming. Some trainings are required to do annually. Lastly, upper management knows about the way some of the program managers are and they do nothing about it. When a program has lost 3-4 good employees in a short period of time, one would wonder why? Not this place, they don’t care. Sadly, it’s the clients who suffer the most. 

If its good pay and good benefits you want, this is not the place. If you want to make a daily difference in people's lives, have great co-workers and managers, and get real-world experience, you will love it. It is absolutely a great place to work, with so many dedicated staff. They could all make more at other places, but their heart is in the work. It is contagious and it will suck you in. The problem is, most jobs require a masters degree and you will not make enough to pay student loans and live on your own, so its tough.

Organization does a lot of good for the community. Management, pay, work environment (employees) = poor. False promises made. Complaints not addressed

Management was supportive and proactively engaged with staff when issues arose. Pretty much everyone around the office was friendly and helpful. Working with victims of abuse and their abusers is obviously challenging so prepare to deal with some verbal abuse. In those situations, however, I always felt like my team members and supervisors had my back.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Counselor 10 salaries reported	$55,850 per year
Shelter advocate 7 salaries reported	$22.61 per hour
Foster care specialist 13 salaries reported	$51,538 per year
Foster care case manager 4 salaries reported	$55,744 per year
Foster care case aide 6 salaries reported	$18.57 per hour

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