Alternative Family Services Reviews

Pros

At AFS I work with people who really care- about the children and families, and about employees. The environment is flexible and supportive, which makes it possible to do this hard work every day!

Cons

Working with children and trauma will never be easy, but everything about AFS makes it easier.

Pros

Fellow Case Managers were all very welcoming and kind. Enjoyed working with most of the families and children.

Cons

Management was not good and you get such little pay for what they expected you to do/caseload. You are literally on-call 24/7. That is no way to live. Kudos to those who can or have been doing it for years. Not for me.

Pros

Working with kids who really need help can be rewarding. No micro-management. Make your own scedule.

Cons

Pay is low as it is a non profit and they don't contribute to your 403B

Pros

The overall purpose of the organization, and it’s ethos is commendable Work worth doing Upper leadership staff are great

Cons

Low pay for hours and effort Managers don’t stay long overall, and the one I had was vindictive and shady

Pros

Some core people really do care about children. The front desk vibe on the Foster Care side seems dedicated to community uplifting

Cons

Back room meetings and hierarchy of members who’ve been there for many years. Therapists supervision time can often be turned into a dumping of projects/tasks that management needs help with. I wish there was more care for actually helping the clinicians feel comfortable, accepted, and welcomed there.

Pros

Making a difference, flexibility, work culture

Cons

Lower pay, stories can be sad

Pros

Constantly being trained, reimbursed for mileage

Cons

Had to use personal vehicles

Pros

Coworkers are great, very supportive of each other.

Cons

Very hard work emotionally, can be too much. Hard to balance with home life.

Pros

Potential to provide superb support to the clients and families enrolled in the program.

Cons

Fail to provide adequate support based on ethnicity of the foster parents. Meetings are segregated. Although not purposefully based on ethnicity but other factors yield the same results. Also, excessive workshops create childcare issues for foster parents with children in the teen category due to onsite care only provided for infant/toddlers. In addition, rules are most intrusive and does not foster the family structure by which the placement is designed. Therefore, the environment becomes a youth-group-home perspective from a family-live-in situation. This is not a way to help the client acclimate to a family oriented. Lastly, if a foster parent becomes too involved inquiring and questioning comparison of support with different AFS locations that parent is viewed negatively then privately reprimanded and asked to refrain from participating.

Pros

* AFS has served thousands of Northern CA foster youth and families since 1978 and the staff is dedicated to helping every single youth have a better life through mental health, foster care and adoption services. I have never worked in an environment where every single employee is working tirelessly towards the common goal of helping clients. It gives me some faith in humanity to see so many people working so hard to help the most disadvantaged youth have a better life. * AFS is currently working towards accreditation which is ensuring that every aspect of the organization is up to and above industry standards. * The work AFS does to help foster youth become capable, independent adults is very inspiring and anyone who works here knows they have had a positive impact on a young person's life who otherwise may have had a very bleak future.

Cons

~ The foster care system in general is a broken, terrible mess. It takes an incredible amount of work for non-profits in the foster care industry to just get the basic needs met from the state/national level. ~ Cases can be emotionally trying on staff.