coach

youth counselor

foster care specialist

therapist

foster care supervisor

VISTA MARIA

During my time at Vista Maria, I gained valuable experience in leadership, crisis response, and policy enforcement. I was proud to contribute to a mission that serves vulnerable youth, and I did my best to support my team and the clients across all programs. 

Unfortunately, the challenges of the role consistently outweighed the support provided. The work environment was emotionally and physically taxing, with frequent incidents of staff injuries and a high turnover rate that created instability and stress. Staff safety often felt like an afterthought, and there was little follow-through from leadership to address these concerns effectively.

A significant lack of professionalism at multiple levels made the job even more difficult. Those who held others accountable often faced pushback, making it hard to create lasting change.

 I hope the organization takes real steps toward creating a safer, more supportive, and professional environment for both staff and youth in the future.

The worst part of working there is you never know how your superiors truly feel about you. One day you are employee of the month,  the next day you are being walked out for some vague reason. Typically if you are popular, then you  have job security. How well you do at this company has absolutely NOTHING to do with work performance. 

For this company that presents to be so invested in empathy, reconciliation, and client satisfaction, they tend to forget to extend those values to their own employees. It’s unfortunate, because the company is in positioned to truly make a difference in the lives of at risk families. But the disparity is blatantly obvious; this  lack of concern for the heath of their employees’ own mentality, that it causes extremely low morale amongst staff.

A typical day at Vista Maria is getting a cup of coffee and begin to retrieve phone messages and checking the calendars for the day's events. Check in with my Supervisor and see what she has for me that day.  


I  learned how to interact with the clients, families and corporations wanting information on the different programs that Vista Maria had. Management was great and always supportive.  My Manager kept me updated on the any new directives, policies and events. 


The workplace culture was supportive and always made sure you were informed.


I can't recall a hard time on this job.  Of course, there are always emergencies and change of plans on most jobs.  

I enjoy the surprise "ice cream days,"  grilled hot dogs and sitting down with others and having a nice break.

I really enjoyed the work that I did and the different people you come across on a day to day basis. However, Vista Maria does not know how to properly run a foster care agency. Most of the management staff are not familiar with foster care and uses the foster care department as a free for all. When a problem arises (which happens often) the agency does not follow policy and keeps children in unsafe environments. The agency is more worried about keeping foster homes open instead of the safety and well-being of children. If you try to address these issues with management they brush it off because they are have no idea how to navigate foster care and foster care policy. Everyday I was scared that I was going to be out of work because of how careless they were with the lives of children. 

What is the best part of working at the company?
Building my own personal bound with the children 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
No support from supervisors or any other higher authority, the safety of staff is no one concern, no team effort, lack of communication, employees show favoritism towards residents and staff, an it’s just ran for the money and not to help the residents 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Management very greedy they quick to put residents on meds for no reason, the employees don’t matter as long as they have a body to fill the schedule 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Stressful, lack of help, lack of communication, supervision smiles in your face but talk about you like a dog to and with other employees

I enjoy being able to help a youth feel better about themselves, and also about their situation. If feel good and also inspired when I am able to put a smile on someone face in the middle of an unpleasant time on in midst of adversity. I love giving advice, I also don't mind seeking advice as well. Uplifting people is my goal and helping people to understand that as long as you are breathing and living it is never to late to continue to stride for your dreams although you may run into road blocks and some days you might want to give up that's when you have to really keep going because that's when you are near your break through I tell that to the clients all the time.

I held several positions at Vista Maria. All of them wanted more out of me than the position required, causing stress. The management was terrible. Everything was backwards. Instead of doing paperwork as you went and making sure everything was signed, they would have staff stay until midnight days before an audit to make sure files were in order with all the correct paperwork. There is no follow up with supervisors and they have no clue what their staff is doing. Foster care was great for getting things done during the day. Residential was understaffed and stressful. And there were meetings, so many meetings. And meetings about meetings. Management also kept staff in the dark about changes and other things within the agency.

Initial before the new management started over a year ago Foster Care Dept. Management appreciated their employees showed support to their staff as well as their families. Since then the new regime that has taken over has destroyed the culture, work life and balance of the department and the definition of teamwork. Bringing in people that yell and talk at you as well as having no knowledge of what child welfare is seems absolutely a failure.Vistas previous vision. How can you disregard your staff and families based on here say. That department was a place of safeness now it's a home of bullies. 

This position bring a lot of stress, however it’s rewarding. There are times when you may feel unsupported and not appreciated at all. Management is wack, sometimes you feel like you are left with the wolves and have to figure it all out. Micro managing was my biggest pet peeve, and be ready to work 24/7. What kept me going was the room for growth, I worked in residential and after 4 months; got promoted to Foster Care. The job security is perfect, but you are underpaid for the work you are consistently doing. This is a great agency to build your resume. But working here is not for everyone. You got to have a lot of patience!!!

What is the best part of working at the company?
Honestly Vista has changed, when I started it was a decent place to work,now honestly it's trash, 😞 if you trying to make some quick money 💰 go there.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Now days the children, because the state allows the children to disrespect staff and visit it's allowing the residents to disrespect staff.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
The shifts are 16hours but people will walk out in order not to work they mandate shift 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Long, the older staff is so unhappy there make you unhappy and the residents are unhappy

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Coach 1 salary reported	$17.90 per hour
Youth counselor 1 salary reported	$19.74 per hour
Foster care specialist 7 salaries reported	$51,071 per year
Therapist 1 salary reported	$61,570 per year
Foster care supervisor 5 salaries reported	$56,479 per year

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