mental health therapist

case manager

foster care case manager

behavioral specialist

foster care worker

The Village Family Services

I applied for a position there as a grant funding proposal writer around Summer/Fall 2013. Their director of HR said that they wanted to pay the grant writer on commission, which is a direct violation of the AFP (Association of Fundraising Professionals) code of conduct. Paying a grant writer on commission is the single most egregious violation of the AFP code of ethics, and whether technically legal or not in any given instance, it is universally considered below-boards and "not legit" by the majority of the non-profit fundraising community. I informed the director of HR that this is below boards and can even be illegal, which she acknowledged. Then she said that they would circumvent that by simply paying the grant writer "out of a separate pot of money" equivalent to what the commission would have been. I walked out of the "interview" before I even met with the CEO. Who do you think sits (or sat) on the board of directors for the local chapter of AFP? One of the senior vice presidents of The Village Family Services. Do you think that anyone from this organization even responded to my e-mailed letters asking them to address this conflict? They stonewalled me, and never provided any sort of substantive reply or explanation. I reported this to a senior member of the AFP, and said I didn't want to be involved with The Village Family Services. Although I have no experience with (or information about) the quality or legitimacy of their social services programs, my personal experience as a potential job applicant did not leave an image of legitimacy or good business practices in my mind. Again, their design and provision of social services may or may not be legitimate, effective, and worthy of support... I don't know anything about that. The feeling that I came away with personally is that the one and only part of their organization that I was involved with (for less than an hour) was not classy, legit, or above boards. I truly hope this is not representative of their corporate culture as a whole.

If I could, I would give this agency NO stars.

I knew this agency was horrible since before I even started. First, I was warned by my previous supervisor at my previous agency about the Village and their horrible reputation, I did not listen. I get to the reception area, before I am even officially an employee to pick up my HR docs. The entire reception team was stuck up, on their cell phones, and very unprofessional. I still did not listen to my gut. 

The Village is the most toxic environment you will ever encounter. Management & Mental Health Directors do not care about you and completely exploit their Clinicians. Management also loves to play favorites and if you are not one of them, you'll be sure to know it. This place will make you so emotionally and physically sick that you will forget what it's like to feel normal and well.

When I first started there was an extremely high staff turnover rate, which were huge red flags. The morale is so low and they treat you like trash. In one year, you earn 2 hours of vacation per paycheck. RIDICULOUS! You are expected to carry a caseload of 25 clients and about 95 percent of your cases are intensive cases. The pay is horrible and their benefits are average.

Unless you want to develop severe anxiety and be exposed to a toxic environment - RUN!!!!

Worked as a case manager, doing RRH for homeless youth. It's good work in that you have the ability to change someone's life. But the way the funds and responsibility are managed is poor. Often times if a client needed further financial help, we were required to write PO requests explaining how they needed that help. Which is fine, but more often than not, those requests were sent back because they were not detailed or specific enough. How much more specific can you get when the issue is that the client has been unable to find work and has no income to pay full rent yet?!
Moreover, if we had any issues with clients, we were offered no support to resolve the matter. There were no client incentives to follow program rules. I too believe in Housing First, but without incentives and little supports for Case Managers, it's hard to hold difficult clients accountable to themselves and to the program. 

The only great thing about this environment was my co-workers, super great people all hard workers. The clinical staff (except two) are all like high school kids they seem all nice to your face but talk bad about you to other employees. Favoritism is an extreme problem here, if you work hard you will definitely not be noticed seen this happen to a  few co-workers who did above and beyond. They will burn you out on purpose and not even feel bad. The turn over rate is ridiculous that should already be a sign!!!!!! HELLO??? does management not notice especially all these reviews. Everyone would discuss these reviews and they are embarrassing. No bonus, no raises, barely a holiday party. They will never make you feel like your work is valued/important. To this company you are replaceable, just remember that. I seen people put their all to working here and just get turned down. This company just gets worse and worse as time goes, wouldn't be surprised if it closes soon.

It was a very stressful and poorly run company.  The finance the finance department was always in serious stressful situations. The billing department received no direction at any time and was constantly forced to be in an unknown state of work. As a Biller I had to use my own experience and knowledge to get the job done without any advice or knowledge of what the company really wanted. Their migration from one electronic health record system to another in the last 30 days before we had to go live with the electronic system was changed and everyone had to learn a new system with very poor and little training which left everyone in a state of bewilderment. I would not recommend this job to anyone as the company seems to have complete lack of knowledge and direction and just simply terminates employees and hires new ones and then the process starts all over again.  Steer clear of this company.

Was hired here and left within 6 months.  The work culture here was terrible, people backstabbing one another, as a previous reviewer here wrote, they will throw you under the bus in a heartbeat.  The staff was more disturbed than the clients, at times.

No breaks, and more paperwork as the months went on, it appeared to me that therapists come and go here, as was the case for myself.
The CEO was paid an insane amount while us peons, the ones in the trenches with the clients, were paid poorly. Morale was terrible, and therapists looked depressed, and dreaded coming to work.  That is not a positive work environment.  You have your "but kissers" who are the favored ones, this whole agency was so toxic that I had to resign to save my sanity.  

Let the therapist beware before you take on a position here, you will see the "light of day" in about a month or two, trust me.

I want to acknowledge that this type of work is hard and stressful in nature. We deal with peoples' worst times in their lives and if you have taken this type of work, it means you care about people and therefore will feel it when clients are suffering. Pile that on top expectations of DMH contracts and you have a stress ball coming at you. This will be true at all community mental health agencies. At TVFS, I have found that communicating with my superiors and being honest with what I need or I am having trouble with has led to good support. I have had a few supervisors throughout my time at the agency and they have all pushed me to grow beyond what I thought I was capable of doing. You will see that a lot around here: leadership that began as interns or therapists, employees that go back to school and have a space to do internship hours and grow. 

What is the best part of working at the company?
Working from home for most staff

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Terrible management, ideas are not valued, micromanagement, and being blamed for things but then not being listened to when making suggestions on how to improve. The people placed in management positions have no concept of what the day to day functioning is like for front line staff, but they do not care about the feedback from the people actually doing the day-to-day work. The people doing the most work are the most undervalued and thrown under the bus on a regular basis.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Sad, depressing, and diminishing place to work.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
There was a lot of work that could have been done to improve things, but nobody wanted to hear suggestions. Most departments are doing the absolute bare minimum while others are held to an unreasonably high standard.

There was no typical day at work as my schedule varied from day to day due to the intensive needs of the families and youth I worked with. While I got a chance to learn a significant amount about the Department of Children and Families, Department of Mental Health, and overall what the foster care system looks like in California, there was no work-life balance. The lack of support from management and overall toxic workplace culture exacerbated the emotionally draining factors of working with this population. However, the most enjoyable part of my role was being able to advocate for accessibility to my clients' services as well as the rapport I was able to build with such vulnerable youth who had been failed by multiple systems.

I do not recommend working here.  Poor management, high employee turn around rate, high case loads (most cases were high crisis and out of clinicians scope), you are expected to work long hours and micromanaged (work with your office door wide open so management can see you, not allowed to eat in offices and only in designated areas which were never available because it was being used as a conference room), constantly being emailed about your whereabouts. No support from clinical management who play favorites and if they dislike you...you feel it.... It was frown upon if you wanted to take personal time off for self care and you were singled out as not being a team player if you asked. Management did not advocate for their employees.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Mental health therapist 3 salaries reported	$76,500 per year
Case manager 2 salaries reported	$25.38 per hour
Foster care case manager 3 salaries reported	$66,497 per year
Behavioral specialist 1 salary reported	$28.50 per hour
Foster care worker 2 salaries reported	$32.13 per hour

Working at The Village Family Services: Company Overview and Reviews

The Village Family Services

The Village Family Services Ratings

Popular jobs at The Village Family Services

Salary Satisfaction

Job Seeker Tools

Employer Tools

Browse

Stay Connected