direct support professional

program manager

youth worker

foster care specialist

social worker

Spectrum Human Services & Affiliate Companies

Emergency Relief workers typically don't get any benefits. If you work yourself crazy, you can make good overtime money but you have to spend ALL DAY with the clients (16+ hours doing double shifts). Clients may be super hard to work with and there's very little you can do about it.

My staff team was always in a position where if the clients didn't behave, all we could do is tell on them to our supervisors, which is dumb for full-grown adults. Managers "handle" situations by undermining our authority and that made our job harder. A lot of people were never reimbursed for mileage on their vehicles or for spending money on toilet paper and food for the clients.

Upper management (or the office staff) acted like smiling snobs. They were so fake and uppity and all you could do is either call them on it or smile back and hope they would leave you alone. Some are nice and genuine but of course, those are not the people you'll deal with on a day-to-day. Typically the staff you work with will be the most real, but you still have to watch your back because everyone does whatever (especially lying) to cover themselves. It's pathetic. And finally, I've never seen such shady business as I did while working for Spectrum...

What makes the job worth it is the opportunity to be a positive role model for the clients and to help them. I would never take this job again for the money or company culture!

If your main goal is to help people, go for it. That moral fulfillment is the biggest payoff you'll get working for this company.

Work midnights and monitor kids while they are sleeping. Make fifteen minute rounds. Clean control room and complete point sheets. Complete laundry and pass out bins. May sometimes work day shift if mandated. May take kids to breakfast and lunch. Monitor kids in classroom. Do social activities with kids such as play chess, checkers, cards, and watch videos. Complete therapy or counseling sessions and redirect negative social behavior. Management is often times very supportive and good. Co-workers are cooperative and team players. Hardest part of job is sometimes getting mandated to work overtime after working a midnight shift. This may require working sixteen hours. Additionally, you may encounter unruly or disruptive behavior at times throughout the day after already working a long, difficult shift. Most enjoyable part of job, however, is showing delinquent  youth what it is like to be a positive male role model and getting along well with challenging,difficult delinquent youth. Also,teaching them positive social behavior and trying to get them to understand negative thinking errors through counseling or peer group assistance.

Working with juvenile offenders and youth at risk is suppose to be a humanitarian job for individuals who want to help those who were abused and neglected. However, this is the worst employer ever. Communication between staff and management is not good and it's a shame that staff receives more information about the center from the residents instead of the management team. Also, the continuous mistreatment of employees that consist of no breaks of any kind, mandatory 16 hour work shifts, write ups and suspensions, supervisors, managers and therapists who live with the fear that the very educated and experienced youth worker want their job position. So far, so bad, many good youth workers left not only the center, but the residents who they tried to assist in making their lives better. This employer needs to be avoided at all costs, even if a person is desperate to find work.

The leadership at Spectrum Community Services understand teamwork. They have top-notch training. And a culture that exemplifies its driving philosophy of gentle teaching, applied not just with consumers, but also throughout the entire organization. There have been a few challenges and there have been many joys. It has been an amazing time. A typical day can be routine, as is the nature of autism, yet from day to day surprises can make the work both challenging and rewarding. This can be the most challenging part of the job, because the consumers look to us to be ready and prepared for anything that comes up. but our managers have our back and are ready to respond to text/call when something comes up that we're not sure about. I have learned the value of myself and what I have to offer, even if I did not always see it in myself. And I have discovered that looking at the world around us with a different perspective can bring us to intriguing realizations about ourselves.

This is a job that proves that social work is a thankless job. The pay is horrible and you can never expect to receive a raise or bonus. They even made pay cuts a couple of years ago and instead of giving the employees that increase they promised back, they installed a gym that is only in the central location and only open during business hours.

Expect to give up your personal life for this job. Your phone (which is your personal cell phone and you're only given $10/month as reimbursement for) will ring all day and all night all 7 days a week and you are expected to give up everything to work for peanuts and no respect. You never know what a typical day will consist of. You may be screamed at in front of clients by upper management. You may be dealing with attacks by clients and left alone to deal with it with no back up. You may be belittled in front of a room of co-workers by supervisors. 

There are plenty of people you meet that are great, but they do not last long at this agency due to management chasing them away.

Spectrum's community for mothering teens and their babies was located at a home and was pretty much a relaxed environment.  During the daily flow of school, appointments, etc., things couldn't have flowed more smoothly on my shift, as I had a good rapport with the residents that came in and out of Spectrum. I enjoyed the girls and their babies and I pray that I made at least one good, lasting, impression on at least one youth.  
Management, however, is unprofessional, to say the least.  Although the job is fairly easy, their have been some major, unprofessional and dangerous mishaps on part of staff members that have been allowed to stay because of their familial ties within the company.
There have been blatant attempts to sabotage career advancement by people in management, despite their encouragement to your face.  It is not a good career place, in my opinion, however, if you're passionate about working with and helping at-risk youth, then this is a good place to start trying to change some (young) minds.

Taking care of our clients was always extremely morally/emotionally rewarding for me. I loved the 1:1 personal time we got with them especially in a home setting. Decorating for Christmas, birthday parties, outings at the Zoo were all part of every day life at Spectrum. With the right staff employed at your home things were virtually pretty smooth. Although there were times you'd be overwhelmed with paper work, emergencies or covering shifts, the consumers always made it worth all the effort. One problem I continuously faced was the lack of support from my superiors. Rather it be assistance in covering shifts, training and information, or disciplinary actions with staff, support was always virtually non existent. Although the benefits were superior, and I genuinely loved my consumers and staff, at the end of the day my position with this company ended due to a combination of unprofessional actions of upper management and lack of support when desperately needed. 

I worked as a case manager for this agency. When I started out, the previous case manager left me with a mess to clean up and it took months to fix everything. With that being said, the supervisor and executive director did not provide adequate training. The executive director is passive and lacks leadership skills. The supervisor I received gaslighted me and there was not much I could do; there was no support. 

I've never worked for such a toxic environment and it took a toll on employee's well being. If anyone took a day off, the executive director and supervisors expected case managers to be miracle workers. Case managers were not given any type of raises either due to the high turnover rate within the agency. The pay is poor, and yet all BSWs kept this agency alive without raises. 

Think twice before working for Spectrum Community Services. You deserve better. 

A typical day at work consists of managing paperwork and prioritizing tasks that come up each day and sometimes managing a crisis. Most days include at least one client contact. I have learned a lot about people with Axis 1 and Axis 2 diagnoses and the community supports and services out there to assist individuals based on their needs and desires. My co-workers are great and we have a strong supportive team environment. Management allows you to work independently as long you meet your deadlines and requirements. They are not at all about micromanaging. The hardest part about the job is keeping up with all the paperwork and the constant change of services, eligibility requirements and the process to get a client involved in a service. The best part of the job is not having to be in the office all the time and spending time with the clients in the community.

Loved my consumers. Disliked the company. The so called manager in my area was lazy, stupid,unapproachable,didn’t answer questions, phone calls or texts. She could not even keep track of our schedules that she made. She was found sleeping on the job and her paperwork was never turned in on time. She covered shifts and made med mistakes that we would have gotten fired for. The team that I worked with was in constant competition for hours and always trying to suck up to the consumers to be there favorite. The pay is a complete joke who can live on 10.25 hr?  From the start I worked 40 to 60 hrs a week and they still considered me part time so I would not qualify for there benefits. The only way you got a decent ck was to work long hours to get overtime which happen all the time as half of the time the next shift gal would no show. Poor management poor pay. I have nothing’s good to say except I loved the ladies I took care of. I miss them and nothing else

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Direct support professional 164 salaries reported	$16.79 per hour
Program manager 23 salaries reported	$20.38 per hour
Youth worker 11 salaries reported	$18.82 per hour
Foster care specialist 12 salaries reported	$43,875 per year
Social worker 7 salaries reported	$48,292 per year

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