Boys and Girls Town of Missouri Reviews

Pros

Help Children and Famlies heal

Cons

Long hours for Salary Employees

Advice to Senior Management

Try to do a few thing well.

Pros

A Paycheck, they want to squeeze every employee like a Turnip, and not hire additional help, it is definitely a challenge everyday. Things you learn here, you will never learn anywhere else.

Cons

Its all about money for them, not so much the children and evaluating how dangerous certain children are.

Advice to Senior Management

Talk with employees, really listen to what they have to say. THE TRUTH! Without repercussions if they have something negative to say. Happy Employees means Happy Business. Sometimes I wonder if Upper Management is really competent enough to be in management.

Pros

Building a relationship with kids who need positive attachments and positive role models! Other than working with youth, the only positives were learning what I would NEVER put up with again from a job or from management.

Cons

-severe lack of communication, respect, and supervision that leads to placing direct care staff in dangerous situations
-lack of training to fulfill job requirements according to their milieu or therapeutic approach/model
-time and energy expectations extremely high for direct care staff with very little respect or support from management
The youth are difficult to work with. I was punched in the face twice. There are never enough staff to feel truly safe and supported in a dangerous environment. I loved this job simply because it taught me what NOT to do and what I will never put up with again.

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to employees and take what they say to heart instead of offering empty promises or false suppport. Train more.

Pros

If you really like working with children that have mental health issues and behavioral problems, this is a good place to start. You have the ability to form relationships with the clients and their parents, which help in the long run for their treatment. But some parents do not care about their children and it can be very challenging. There are different areas to work within the organization.

Cons

Very dangerous atmosphere and some employees do not practice proper trained techniques when handling children. The upper management communication is very lacking; it is really hard to get answers on how to deal with a lot of situations, but when it comes to blame the direct care staff get all of it. The program seems very off, not as much success in treatment as it could possibly have. Some of the therapists are really lacking in treatment, meaning they do not see the clients like they are suppose too. It is not the best opportunity for career advancement, even though they promise it.

Advice to Senior Management

They need to train employees better and make sure all policies are known. Communication between all employees needs to be better. Rules need to be enforced with clients for a successful program, because when client's have a non stable environment and different things are enforced by different people the whole routine is off and is more challenging. Upper-level management needs to recognize employees that do a great job and reward it, as well as offering opportunities for advancement in their career. Upper-level management also needs to acknowledge the work that direct care does and value their dedication and service to the company.

Pros

Good trainings and career growth opportunities, Friendly co-workers and occasionally, Friendly and competent Cottage Life Supervisors, Some employee praise events, truly meet their mission and attempt to provide the best for their kids.

Cons

Severe communication problems, severe lack of consistency with programs, therapeutic activities, containment techniques, negative modeling behaviors by supervisors, poor communication with direct care staff and administrative officials and vice-versa, lack of activities to engage the youth, lack of quality programming and consistency with scheduling, no incentives to remain with the organization - poor pay, ridiculously poor raises and praise, the employee appreciation events are a joke, each cottage runs differently - thus extreme lack of consistency with the therapeutic environment of the organization. Simply put, very poor organization, problem-solving, communication, among many other skills. Additionally, a ton of internal, friend-based reasons and encouragements for advancement, rather than skills and qualifications. MUST LOVE KIDS TO WORK HERE!!!

Advice to Senior Management

1st and foremost, communication must be significantly improved, consistency is key for everything in the residential field and must be applied, the structure of the organization must be more succinct and in stone. Better care for the children and in my opinion the main people who help these kids are the direct care staff, as they spend the most time with them and build the true family-like and friendly yet professional relationships. Thus, to retain staff and increase the effectiveness and competence of direct care staff, higher pay is needed, more employee appreciation, trainings, and raises must be based on performance, not that each person gets the same raise after a year. I wish the best for BGTM and hope the Columbia Campus improves, especially for the kids.

Pros

Helping the children is very rewarding. The people are very nice that you work with and many of them reall care about the children.

Cons

Pay not equal with performance. It is also a job where more and more responsibility is placed on you with out thanks and with out increase in pay.

Advice to Senior Management

I would say that offering more feedback would be helpful. Many of the employees only get reviewed once a year.