counselor

mental health technician

program director

assistant director

registered nurse

Progress Foundation

Progress has gone down hill on so many levels its really quite a shame. A formerly forward thinking, progressive agency who cared about staff who offered regular training and support with a family vibe, has  turned draconian with super incompetent upper management  that have zero interest in training and investing in their staff. Upper management are completely far removed from the boots on the ground staff and the programs. They are set in their ways, wont listen or be open to any thing different  and rely on  fear tactics to improve  situations. Unfortunately this draconian style spills over into management then to staff hence the crazy turn over. I wonder if upper management care at all the amount of turn over this company has now compared to years ago. Turn over years ago was practically non existent, now it’s like someone quits or gets fired on a weekly basis. PF is the  McDonalds of the mental health agencies where quality of product is cheap and generic with numbers being the only agenda. Caring about staff or management is not part of the mission.  

Progress Foundation does good work helping those in need with the social rehab model which is progressive and enables you to work with clients on a more relaxed level.  I have experienced  some very caring staff and management, but unfortunately, there are too many staff and management who lack clinical skills, understanding, diversity, empathy, and just plain common sense which could improve with regular clinical training, investment, and staff development. The results would be  staff learn and do a better job, the clients benefit from clinically strong staff, clients thrive, staff thrives, management thrives, agency thrives, and a good reputation builds. This company has lost their mission and values and needs a 360 degree overhaul all the way from the tip top on down. They harp on how important serving their clients are, yet don’t follow that same philosophy or  have any consideration or care for front line staff with whom this agency would  not exist.  

If you work here this is what you will deal with:

Cons: Very irregular work schedule (including overnights which wont be negotiated), long shifts (10-12 hours in most cases)  incompetent upper management, poor communication within the agency, incompetent program management (depends on which program you work in)  tons of paperwork that you will get little to no training on how to do, no regular clinical training or training to improve your skills, lack of professionalism across the board. Horrible computers, phones, and copiers which always seem to break down. This company is cheap and doesn’t feel investing in good office furniture or equipment is important. Most of the programs are run down and old, dirty, aesthetically unappealing, and with mostly cramped working quarters. This is a union job and salary is based on the union contract and besides the initial 5 year track, expect meager if any pay increases. The list really does go on but I’m going to stop here.

Pros: Solid benefits with generous time off, you get to meet and work with some really interesting staff and clients, you get to feel good that you are helping people through very difficult times. Working in homelike environments changes the dynamic to more laid back than working in an out patient or hospital  setting. Decent work/ life balance depending on the individual and lifestyle. 

This agency may or may not work for you, it just  depends on who you are and what your looking for. I can only speak from my experiences.

Quote from Richard Branson: “Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough so that they don't want to".

When I first began working for Progress, I loved it! The company is ran very well, and the management truly care about their staff and employees. Progress really does life changing work and actively helps adults with mental illness. It is extremely rewarding to provide help to these adults. You lead a therapy group either in the morning or evening, spend time with clients throughout the day, help them with their medications, prompting for hygiene, etc. My biggest critique of Progress is not within the houses themselves, but with corporate. The job schedules for Counselors are a complete nightmare, not conducive to physical or mental health (ironic.) They will have you work a day shift, two swing shifts, and don’t forget, everyone works AT LEAST one overnight shift a week. The schedule is what did me in. It was very bad for my health. I spent my “weekend” (which wasn’t on Saturday or Sunday) recovering from my overnight shift. You work weekends. You work late into the night, and this is all within the same week. They need to be staffed 24 hrs a day. They NEED to come up with a better solution for staffing. It is simply not viable to keep expecting their hard working staff to sacrifice their physical health like this. The counselors who work here are amazingly kind and helpful. It is truly a team. I honestly loved working with my coworkers and management, I really did. My critiques are not of them in any way shape or form, it is not their fault company policy is the way it is. To make up for the grueling schedule they give you A LOTTTTTT of PTO, which is kind of nice but in my opinion doesn’t make up for it. They offer holiday pay. The health benefits are great and are for a good price. The pay is pretty good. If you don’t mind staying up late or staying up all night every week, hey this might be the job for you. Another thing I would like to add is, I stopped feeling challenged working here. I sort of mastered all there is to master about being a counselor and I plateaued, which made me look for a job elsewhere. So the combination of those 2 things is why I left. Also, clients can be very emotionally taxing and draining. You will have to deal with hostility and arguments among clients which I felt very uncomfortable with but everyone is different. 

A typical day at Progress Foundation involves writing progress notes for billing, providing individual counseling, running groups, and helping clients learn  skills related to their activies of daily living. The activies of daily living involves teaching clients how to cook, budget, launder linens, practice self care, ect. You will have an assigned primary client, sometimes multiple, to tack the client's mental and physical health symptoms with their outside providers at least once in a case conference. You will track the client's medication weekly as well.

I have learned more about local services offered to patients that are homeless and low income. I also learned crisis deescalation skills and communication skills. These skills in this position are wonderful if you wish to go become an LCSW , PSYD, or MFT. 

The workplace culture can be fun as they have team building activities. There are some programs that offer free snacks and flexable scheduling of your day. 

The hardest part of the job is obtain regular trainings, monthly supervisons, and the scheduling process of the days you work. Your trainings will be based on  administration's availability, but you will have manditory trainings from the city throught the year. You are required to work at least 1 overnight, 1 week day, and a 4 hour meeting shift in a week. For example, you may work Monday day shift (11 hours), Tuesday overnight (12.5 hours), Wednesday staff meeting (4 hours), and Saturday day (12.5 hours). This can be hard on the body and mind, so you need to have excellent coping skills to prevent burn out.

I have loved the ability to connect with others in the city and problem solve client's goals build coping skills and changes in their lives. It is meaningful work! You have some creativity on groups activities during your shifts. 

Overall, Progress Foundation has a great foundation to progress your long term goals into the mental health field. You will need to ability to be very flexible with your job and daily shift schedule. You will learn about services and system offered in the Bay Area. 

I worked for Progress Foundation for many years and can give an honest critique. I believe that this is OK job for someone wanting experience in the mental health field, a recent college grad for example. All others run! The clientele is extremely difficult to work with and full-time staff will be tasked with treatment plans and progress notes that have little to do with the actual work. If you are not a nurse or upper management you will not get paid enough. Enough is subjective but after spending sometime providing direct service you will understand. They expect a lot of mental and physical labor that is not comparable to what you earn; even reconciling its a non-profit does not ease the pain. Do you have even a smidgen of cultural competence; great if you do because your coworkers will be angry sullen "millennials" that have no idea how to engage with the clientele (making your job that much harder). If you are a angry millennial that has negative preconceived ideas about "urban" people apply because Progress can't get enough of you. You are at risk of physical harm in this job and while I was working there there was no real concrete safety plans to protect staff from violent clients. Most line staff that provide direct service will have to work over nights an addition to day shifts which can wreak havoc on your health. You won't get promoted, no chance for advancement. Even if you been there for 15 years, you will see a parade of young women with little experience from outside the agency getting supervisory positions. I learned a lot from my time here and the experience was invaluable; those are the good points. If you are considering a job in the mental health field and want some fast and furious hands on experience with San Francisco's most vulnerable population this is place. Good luck!

Not to sure that these reviews were written by staff. Lol! There are many positives despite some major challenges with the clinical team,  inhumane roatating work schedules and adversarial relationship dynamics between front line staff, HR and CO. The positives are the clients, the staff and the open environment when you can reach your clients in creative and non-conventional ways. Benefits are also good. I worked across programs and quickly promoted. The supervision and clinical support for clinicians is slim to none. Licensure and education are down played in this organization and profoundly lacking. The CEO and clinical director are very set in their ways, which seem to have made sense in the 60's. Technology , modernized and logical practices, and respect for staff feedback are not integrated. Hostile working conditions due to lack of appropriate computers, phones, copy machines and rotating schedule with a required awake overnight shift weekly. At certain programs staff work over 15 hour days. Clinical staff are deeply out of touch and many program directors operate on fear and lack appropriate clinical knowledge. After leaving and experiencing a healthy working environment, I strongly advise protential staff, most especially ASW'S, LCSW, MFT, MFTI and MHRS to explore other options in the Bay Area. There are far better opportunities, with better pay, clinical support, humane schedules, healthy relationship between staff and upper management and truly employee centered HR.

Part-time work here is a great option! You can set your own hours, which is super flexible if you have other gigs or hobbies. Plus, there's way less paperwork compared to full-timers. It's cool because you can switch things up and work at different locations if you start feeling burned out. And hey, if you're up for it, you can score some extra cash by snagging a shift on short notice and getting premium pay.

But going full-time means diving into paperwork central. You're constantly dealing with nurses, doctors, and case workers who are usually in a rush and just as burnt out as you are. Plus, there's the pressure of making sure clients make it to their appointments on time. Sometimes, it feels like you're the one doing all the bending over backward, especially when management isn't always in your corner.

The pay? Well, let's just say it doesn't quite match up to the amount of work and dedication you're putting in. It's tough because someone's gotta do these jobs, but you're barely making enough to get by. Forget about saving money or living comfortably – it's paycheck to paycheck, especially in a pricey place like Sonoma County. And dealing with stressed-out clients and drug users on top of it all? It can take a toll. Unless you're in it for the long haul, the emotional stress might not be worth it.



I don't think this job is worth it because a lot of co-workers will do things that they aren't supposed to, but when you do the same thing they will snitch on you. If you are a "relief counselor" you're going to be treated like garbage by the full timers who assume they're better than you because they're full time. It won't matter how hard you work or your experience/education, if you're an RC then you're worthless and you will be treated as such. People will be rude to you, leave you out of conversations pertaining to the job, and just treat you like garbage overall. Not everyone does it but it's a good amount.

 Sometimes we will have clients who are rude or abusive to staff and they will be tolerated and condoned by management. They will not be kicked out and can repeat offenses multiple times before getting any pushback by management. Managers don't stick up for the employees. 

Not to mention the pay. I think it's about 18.50 or 19.50 per hour unless it's a premium shift. Its obviously more than minimum wage but its not livable and you could be doing the same exact thing but getting paid more if you work for a different company. 

I worked for progress foundation for 4 years, and the only way I was able to do this was because I got lucky with the team I worked with and the management. Beyond that, the employees of central office were absolutely terrible. Communication was indirect, not consistent, often lacking. Depending on who you reached out to, you’d get different answers. Whenever I would come to central office for support around traumatic events that happened, or how they handled situations such as a Covid outbreak, they would gaslight me and talk around the issue at hand. Central office was incredibly rude and unprofessional. Luckily being a counselor at PF you are in a union, so one can receive support that way as well as protection. Because there is such high turn over, especially now due to Covid, PF is desperately hiring unqualified people to work. This puts yourself, coworkers, and clients at risk and in harms way. I find that ADUs have more work and more acute situations, however they get paid just the same as those working at year long programs due to the salary-like set up. Basically no matter what, you start out at the starting wage and get an annual raise, just the same as everyone else. I appreciate PF for the work experience, my coworkers, and being able to do this work. But beyond that this company is completely toxic and it’s only getting worse. 

Progress cerate a very special atmosphere and the work is very rewarding and also very eye opening. If you are entering the field of psychology in any capacity I do encourage you to at least attempt to become a Relief Counselor here to really get a feel of the struggles within our little community. Sometimes managers are great, other times they fall behind similar to other jobs. However there is two caveats I would consider if you are considering a full time position. Pay & Overnight shifts. The pay is not conducive to the cost of living in Sonoma County for full time staff. Along with that a lot is required of you and unfortunately it is hard to get certain shifts covered when you need them because no one wants to work overnights. Working overnights and switching back and forth is not only draining, its SUPER unhealthy overall for you. The work is very rewarding, the co workers are amazing  and if you have outside support and are in school this is a great job for you to learn about this field, especially if you can make the overnights work for your health. However if you have other outside stresses, this job does require a lot and does not pay enough to justify what it requires as you will still struggle with cost of living.

One of the many things I appreciated about Progress Foundation. The "training" by Management and Peers was very helpful in the documentation (Medi-Cal billing).I also enjoyed that most days on the job, was different than the previous, especially with Client contact.The hardest part of the job for me initially, was that many aspects of the job (when it came to client care and procedures) were "changing". The most rewarding part of the job for me was working with the clients and watching them achieve some measure of success as they transitioned through the program(s). I also enjoyed working with my coworkers as we had a very diversified staff which brought different perspectives and cultures to the Progress Foundation's Community.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Counselor 7 salaries reported	$21.84 per hour
Mental health technician 7 salaries reported	$96,182 per year
Program director 6 salaries reported	$109,262 per year
Assistant director 7 salaries reported	$71,988 per year
Registered nurse 1 salary reported	$78.91 per hour

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