life skills trainer

youth advisor

case manager

resident advisor

youth specialist

Valley Youth House

VYH on a whole is an amazing company and family-oriented. Unfortunately, their subsidiary, Achieving Independence Center, which is based in North Philadelphia near Temple's campus, lacks professionalism and that family atmosphere. In 3 years of working in the program which staffs about 30 people, they had a turnover of over 25 people. And that does not include 2 or 3 who were terminated. That's over 1/3 of the program per year. This was a stark difference when the AIC program is compared to its other counterparts under the VYH umbrella. It created much instability for the clientele that was being serviced. There was not a clear distinction between Management and regular staff. Unfortunately it was ran like a high or college club. Popularity weighed more than job performance. Gossip and slander were rampant. If you were amongst the cool, people covered for one another. Standards were not universally enforced. In addition, trying to assist clients in the achievement of better life skills was made more complicated as staff were trying to better there own, exposing a lack of maturity amongst the ranks. Having the Dept of Human Resources on site did provide some much needed maturity and leadership. I would warn people against applying here especially if they really love the community. AIC doesn't emulate that sentiment. I was also caution men from applying to the VYH program AIC in North Philadelphia. It is a female dominated setting. Male leadership is frowned down upon plus ideas or suggestions from men are not regularly respected or considered. In 3 years of working there, there was only one man with tenure beyond me.

*Picked up clients and took them to the program
*Helped children complete homework & cook meals
*Facilitated/cofacilitated group
*Managed conflicts between the children
*Took the children home

I learned that working with teens can be incredibly challenging, but also extremely rewarding. I found that patience and empathy can go a long way. I also learned how important it is to lower my expectations rather than getting frustrated with clients.

The manager was new and still getting a feel for how to run the program. She was also the therpaist for the children and had a lot on her plate. 

The program was located in a church which was difficult, because it made some of our clients uncomfotable. We were also limited to specific rooms which changed daily depending on activities the church was hosting. Sometimes our clients would venture into rooms we were not permitted to use which would cause conflict between our staff members and members of the church. We usually tried to take the children outside for recreational activities which helped with some of the conflict. Our team consisted of two interns, a therapist, and two part time workers. 

The hardest part of the job was knowing what to say to the children when they were fighting with each other. It was difficult because there was a lot of bullying in the program, and they all accused each other of starting the conflict. We also had a few clients who were resistant to being placed with us. They went out of their way to break the rules and insult staff members.

The best part of the job was coming up with fun activities for the children. Not only was it a blast to get to play games with the kids, but it also taught them important skills like team building, problem solving, and how to be a leader.

Family Based Mental Health is a great program that benefits the community. Co-workers are helpful and pleasant. Great job for individuals graduating from college with no experience. You work in a team consisting of a case manager and therapist. Expectations are reasonable and very doable. I prefer to work alone, it is a challenge to coordinate schedules with another individual if they have restrictions. High turn-over rate for minority, bilingual staff unfortunately. Ideally you need to adapt to changes quickly and be disciplined with paperwork being on time. There is a lot of paperwork required besides the session notes such as intake packets, referrals, updating treatment plans monthly with each family. Downside to the job is having to work in the clients homes, regardless of their living conditions, cleanliness and possible lack of heat/AC or bug infestations. A lot of travel involved between clients, will vary with client load and county. You will be required to work evening hours when school starts, it is not a 9-5 job. You make your own schedule but it depends on when parents and children are available.

Two days of training, working with at risk youth, not paid for overnight working hours, you have no involvement or collaboration on the structure given to each youth but are expected to go along with whatever upper management says. Poor decision making lead to me having to wait at the hospital at 3am for a youth who tried to commit suicide (MULTIPLE TIMES) and nothing was done by the case workers to remedy her issues. Lack of communication, low pay, no work life balance. I had to work from 4pm-8am the next day full time and was not paid between the hours of 12am and 6am as those were considered "Sleeping Hours" Since I've left and aired my complaints to higher ups those pay differentials were changed but you are still not paid at your full rate for working overnight. Higher ups are not involved at all, within the first three months of my employment the director of our department quit then the therapist left and we lost many many RAs during my 8 month stint.  Upper management was like a group of mean girls. 

Terrible and drawn out onboarding process,  and the HR department is the worst when it comes to dealing with this. Many people quit before even starting because the onboarding process takes far too long. Upper management, who do not deal with day to day program operations or work directly with the youth, have very unrealistic expectations for how programs should be structured and run. They do not have the youths best interest at heart, they treat the programs simply as money makers and the independent living program that I worked at for 3 + years slowly just turned into a shelter, a revolving door for youth to come and go with no real life skills acquired or goals met, because upper management were more concerned with filling beds and making money then actually helping the youth progress. It is a thankless job, my first year or so here was really good because my supervisor was very supportive of staff and knew how to run the program.

Once upon a time this used to be, by far, the best child advocate organization in this area, and possibly all of PA to work with. You would never hear any bad word on the street in the mental health field about anything they were involved in. Then the founding CEO retired, and his vision and heart for children was carried on by many who had also been with the organization for many years. Unfortunately some poor choices were made in locating his replacement and then the vice president also retired. Now the organization is a shell of what it once was, and they are no longer client focused, but very focused on expanding and maintaining their bottom line.It is sad to see what has happened.The turnover rate is now pushing 65-70%.

This is a good first job out of college, but that’s about it. They tell you a lot of benefits about the job during the interview, and then change it once you actually start working. For example, they promote their flex hours and say you can work whatever hours you want as long as it’s within two hours from 9-5. Then, when you take advantage of that they tell you that you are violating their policy, and that they never said you could do that and basically gaslight you even though everyone in the office was under the same impression. This was an issue especially for people who took the job to work around their children’s school schedule, and then we’re no longer allowed to do that. They also don’t mention a lot of the negatives which are pretty important, like having to travel hours away for most of you trainings. I had to travel to Philadelphia for my first day and I did not know until the week before I started. 

This is the kind of job where you are really immersed in the life of your youth. If you are not trauma-informed - this is NOT the job for you. This is a unique experience to advocate for youth who need an adult on their side when the system is not. VYH allows you to build your own schedule, so if you have good time management skills it's easy to maintain a healthy work/life balance. There is a lot of PTO and you are encouraged to use them. I've never had an issue requesting time off. My biggest issue with VYH York is the lack of diversity in leadership and staff. Overall it's a great place to work, lots of room for growth and the youth are incredible. 

I worked and supervised Neglected, Abandoned and Abused Children, with Drug and Alcohol and Behavioral problems in a Group Home and Shelter setting, and I also worked at Community Service Foundation, and the office location at that time was Pipersville, Pa, and altogether I worked with children for twelve years, as a Residential Counselor. I worked varied shifts, and I was certified to give the clients their medications at their "prescribed time", to make sure that the children attended school, in emergency situations, I was responsible to take the clients to the hospital, and to notify their parents, and to write incident reports, and to document progress notes, etc.

A day at work, may be calm or it can be very busy. Most of the day is spent out in the community with the families. As a case manager my job is to link them to services such as DPW, rental assistance, assistance with utilities, educating the family on the child's diagnosis and behavior. Assist families who are almost homeless. Providing positive advice and guiding the family. Teaching parenting skills, at times the family just needs someone to listen. the best part about working at Valley Youth hose is the satisfaction of helping someone with out expecting anything in return.
Every family is different, all needs are different, but all with one purpose which is to be able to understand their child and find new ways to cope with the behaviors that are displayed due to their diagnosis.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Life skills trainer 79 salaries reported	$23.07 per hour
Youth advisor 40 salaries reported	$19.90 per hour
Case manager 17 salaries reported	$23.29 per hour
Resident advisor 36 salaries reported	$19.68 per hour
Youth specialist 19 salaries reported	$20.66 per hour

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