student mentor

specialist

performing arts coordinator

camp counselor

New-York-Edge,-Inc

Sports and Arts in Schools Foundation/New York Edge is an over-funded, over-grown bureaucracy. I worked at one of their sites and this is my experience.
1. Terrible allocation of resources. Our site needed a laptop computer so we applied for the funds to receive said computer in January. After a huge amount of back and forth, sometimes when they told us they were going to buy it and sometimes when they said they weren't, we still didn't have a computer at the end of the school year (July). Turns out they have so many expensive items (that must be ordered through the main office) at the main office that there was no space to keep an extra computer. Essentially, sites would order these "big-ticket" items then never pick them up, so we couldn't get a computer.  And this is just one example of the many inefficiencies present throughout the organization.
2. Inefficient and useless training. To attend certain events and work at a site, every employee must be trained. This sounds great, but the training is essentially hours and hours of wasted time. I don't think I learned anything that couldn't be conveyed in an email during these trainings. Furthermore, we would sometimes be required to make a trip out to Queens for an hour-long meeting. While some employees could do this trip in a short amount of time, others spent hours on the subway for these useless meetings. This was a source of constant frustration for everyone at my site.
3. Insufficient support systems and personnel. Some employees at our site left for various reasons so we requested that the central office hire more personnel to fill in their spots. Unfortunately, the HR department was so poorly staffed that they were behind on hiring for sites other than ours. So it took two to three months to fully fill our team, which is crazy when there's a ratio for a required number of adults per group of children.
4. People who are ignorant or just don't care. We were asked many times to do things that would completely overburden certain employees at our site. Instead of being understanding, management doubled down when we pushed back. Some sites simply refused to do the requested work. It was totally crazy.
5. Difficult to advance. I had a friend who had been working at SASF for years. Unfortunately, he did not get along very well with the manager above his manager, so in all that time he had not gotten a raise. To devote that much time to a company and never receive compensation always seemed unfair to me.

Overall, I agree that this is a good temporary job for recent graduates or people who are raising kids and looking for a second income. However, new employees should be wary about expecting long-term careers at this company.

This is the most unhelpful, disorganized, dysfunctional, and probably corrupt organization I have every worked for. The staff at HQ doesn't have the vaguest clue of how to run program, of how to train people to run programs, or of how to do their own job, and they are for the most part incredibly nasty to site staff. 
SASF got contracts to expand SONYC (School's Out NYC) programs in 2014 and had to hire a lot of people very quickly. If you were placed at a good site or hired by a decent director, you have a better shot at making it all work than the unfortunate sites where directors were hired based on resumes instead of valid references.
The biggest problem is that the only fulltime person at any given site is the Site Director. S/he is scheduled at 40 hrs./week but works more like 60+ hrs./week. It'll be interesting to see what happens when the new USDOL overtime rules go into effect this summer. Will SASF make ASDs fulltime at that point? Who knows. But you can't run a program for 90-200 kids with one fulltime and a small staff of p/t workers, some of whom have dubious qualifications. You are not going to get job commitment from people who are limited to 15-20 hours a week, even if they are college students. Their other commitments will ALWAYS win, because even if your hourly is $15-18, it isn't worth it to flunk the classes upon which your real future depends, or find a sitter for your kids at home because they scheduled yet another useless mandatory training for your days off, for which you already had plans.
Directors are overworked and underpaid for what is expected. Data Specialists are underpaid and underscheduled, ESPECIALLY considering that future funding is completely dependent on accurate attendance data. I am sure that attendance data is being fudged at sites. I have been in meetings at HQ where it is made clear that Data Specialists are KNOWN to be expected to work on their own time, uncompensated, in violation of local, state, and federal labor law. I've been looking for another job ever since my first week there, and I have a decent director.

This is after school program so a typical day can vary. There is not much growth for the specialist or counselors. 

If you are looking for growth beyond being a specialist or counselor, you must gain the experience to be a Site Director. Upper management will cut hours of even the Assistant Site Director, therefore the only good positions are that of a Site Director (Program Director).

The culture varies depending on your site. My particular site had me on edge due to the fact they would cut your hours without any notice. So you cannot rely on this as your only job, this is why it is a perfect job for college students.

The hardest part of this job was being patient. Schedule's constantly change and you must be flexible. Also, the requirements of having to do PBL lessons only is a stretch. Students do not come consistently so you have to work around this requirement. If you want to teach professionally this is not the place to be. Lesson plans are required but most of the time we do not use half of them, due to the varying schedule's. Half of my lesson plans from last year were recycled because I never got to teach them. Certain specialist had to develop their curriculum from scratch because they were not provided with one. HQ was also not supportive when requesting documents, and when we went to company training's the attitudes were "We are office employees and you guys are the help." type of atmosphere.

The best part is working with the kids.

If you really need work experience, especially with kids, you can do this for a little while. Summer programs are fun because it is easier to stand chaos for only a couple of weeks. However, if you consider this as a long-term opportunity you should be aware of a few things:
* management is highly disorganized, often to the level of being unprofessional
* the supervisors and directors do not seem to recognize talented and motivated individuals they work with, and certainly do not give them positive feedback 
* the work is very responsible (you are in charge of kids, after all, and some classes can be very wild, and in need of special assistance that is not provided for them), but the employers are not adequately prepared for their tasks. I would not feel safe to have my own kids in some of the programs I was involved with.
* the salary is lousy for how responsible the work is.
* there was a lot of misinformation between hiring and starting of the work
* there is a lot of inconsistency. The company has a great curriculum and good ideals, but these are often not reflected in any way whatsoever in the everyday practice. Some of your co-workers can be highly gifted and great individuals, others could not care less for the quality of their work.

At my time at SASF, building relationships and developing teamwork is the easy part. They hire bright and accomplished individuals who use their skills in academics or sports to influence and engage with the children. 
However, a lot of that talent is wasted or delayed because of poor upper management decisions. If you walk into the headquarters in Queens, NY you can see them all lounging around laughing. At the schools, where all the real work is done, everyone is hard at work. - Or they try to be while waiting on an approval letter from HQ to do anything outside of the school site. An organization that is controlled by it's funders can never be good.
Other than that, my time at SASF has been very enjoyable; my experience with every activity has taught me new things about teamwork, discipline and making the right choices. The part I enjoy most is being able to influence the students with all that I myself have learned and with positivity.

Commencing with the CEO down to Managers, the organizations is extremely disorganized and mismanaged.  There is a lot of waste and mismanagement of resources.  Very disorganized yet they boast of having the most after school sites and receive very large grant amounts from the City. A complete restructuring of the organization is needed. I have never witnessed such extreme high turnovers which speaks volumes about the management of the organization.  People choose to flee despite the amazing mission and opportunity to benefit youth.

The HQ atmosphere is chaotic.  No space and can be extremely overcrowded and very loud.  I have witnessed staff being berated by Managers, spoken to in the most disrespectful tones. 

Many employees are hired with the promise of becoming full-time to receive benefits and may work part-time for years without any benefit.  An investigation should be launched in to why an extremely high number of employees are hired as part-time for the same positions and the gross avoidance of providing benefits to staffing.

A typical day working with Sports and Arts in Schools Foundation (SASF) was always filled with surprises. We would dismiss students from day classes and give them snacks. As the after school program progressed we would aid them with their homework then have them participate in activities. Working with children was very challenging, each day was a different experience with my students. Interacting with them taught me to be very patient and understanding. It also taught me how to better understand and discipline children. This job was never too hard thanks to the wonderful team I worked with. We always supported each other, which was a plus. The hardest part of my job was always saying bye to my kids at the end of the school day; I dreaded 6:00 pm. The thank yous, smiles, and hugs from my team and most importantly my students were the most enjoyable parts of working with SASF. It was a very refreshing experience.

Everyday is something new. You never know what you're going to do until the day you walk into work. The schedule is different everyday and your supervisor only takes the requirements seriously when a visitor from headquarters is overseeing. You constantly have to get girls on track and babysit them, start practicing your stern yelling voice now. Poor communication with other counselors.
You do not get paid enough for what they ask of you.

I have had our male counselor hit on me numerous time. Hence, the work environment is entirely unprofessional. The supervisors have belittled me and instead of helping, they let you fail and send you to another site so you can hate your life even more, to then quit.

The only upside is the relationships you create with your students, and the fact that you can have access to the extra snack.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Working with at risk youth.  Bringing smiles to the faces of young people who May sometimes feel they have no reason to smile. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Overwhelming nature of boot camp style training of new hires.  Then a lack of support after feeding too much information that is expected to be remembered in one week. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
The work environment varies from school to school.  It could be great it could be terrible depending on the location of the school and the temperament of the Principal. The culture of the organization is you must push through and get it done if you have to ask peers for assistance fine but your supervisor will not. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Busy some days. Other days can be perfect or confusing if you’re not sure on a particular task.

I started working here back when I was 17. I am 21 and still working here. I originally saw myself as another kid within the school but as time went on, I couldn't help but feel like an older brother to the kids. While I did not have the experience, my boss told me I will be coaching a team at 18 years of age. I was mentored by the other coaches and staffs on how to be the best coach I can be. Come the season, we won the championship. I was in absolute tears, not because it was something I wanted, but because the kids have been wanting this for years. The experiences you get from this job are ones you will take with you for a lifetime. My colleagues have the best professionalism and communicate so well with one another. There are countless opportunities we explore as a collective to educate the youth in values, morals, and social emotional growth. This job is something special. 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Student mentor 2 salaries reported	$21.00 per hour
Specialist 2 salaries reported	$22.50 per hour
Performing arts coordinator 1 salary reported	$22.50 per hour
Camp counselor 1 salary reported	$17.50 per hour

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