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Staffer Hated Group Home Work
December 14, 2007 permalink
A blogger signing her post "Lindsay" describes life as a group home worker. The constraints of the job foster negative attitudes toward the work. It is no wonder the inmates do not make progress.
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Kinda crazy news for me a couple weeks ago. Before I got the job that I have now, I worked in a female adolescent residential facility, or in layman's terms, a group home for youth that have been placed into the Children's Aid Society's care. It was a shitty job. Most people in my field do put their time in there, but never usually last long because the pay is shitty for the work we do. And there's no where to move with it, and the burn out rate is incredibly high! I was working with 6 girls, ranging from 13-18. Anyways, I came to find out that one of my girls was involved in a murder a couple weeks ago. She stabbed a girl over a fight about a boy. I could not believe it. She was 13 when I was with her, and now she's 18. I was just completely shocked! I know that often group home kids do not turn their life around, and end up living on the streets, or following the same chaotic life cycle that they are used to. Anyways, needless to say, I've seen a few interviews that the girl has given and she has not changed a bit. She was all about me when I knew her, and that seems to be the case now. She's looking for her 15 minutes of fame, and unfortunately she thinks that negative behaviours are the way to get it. So that was kind of interesting. On the news one night, they were interviewing street kid that was friends with the girl that was killed, and here it was another one of my girls from the group home. Kinda sad when you see them now and see that they haven't turned it around.
Lindsay
Source: blog by Linds, entry for December 13, 2007
