disability support worker

team leader

engineering team leader

residential team leader

program leader

The Robin Hood Association

The clients are very enthusiastic and value staff support, encouragement, their skill development and community inclusion and growth towards independence.
The benefits are okay but the wage is poor at best. Often employees are hired at the top of their wage grid and stuck at that wage for decades.
The new hire direct service workers level 1 in the past 15 years have declined in skill, competence, education and often do not know the language and have no experience or knowledge of disabilities.
Management, supervisors and team leaders treat level 1&2 front line staff poorly, bullying or making life nasty for staff that advocate for client choice, suggest improvements, advocate for consistency and client centered focus.
Management hide incident reports and background history that would educate and inform frontline staff of  risks to staff safety and/ or client roomate safety.
Clients often do not have imput on roomate choice, meal choice.  Clients are sadly moved around in agency from res to res like trading cards to suit the team leaders without open disclosure of risks. Like trading cards, even without the client agreeing, or being asked.
Guardians are not told of potential risks of potential roomate with behavioral tendancies, physically or sexually aggressive or assaultive pasts.
Client privacy is valued over staff or client safety.
The real talent pool is styfelled if they do not fit in to the clique or blindly go along unquestioningly with the crowd. 
Relatives and friends are hired, not qualified candidates. Promotions are given to the best suck ups that do not think for themselves or question management.
Safety concerns are ignored or diminished and workers are told they are unprofessional if they request lock on bathroom doorsor staff bedrooms. If concerns are raised staff are told not to share with guardians even if management doesnt deal with it appropriately.

Honestly I love working for the Robinhood Association. The job is incredible for me as a student working as a relief staff as the hours are incredibly flexible. However, it took my a couple years to be able to navigate the company, get connections, and figure out who to work in order to get the hours I want where I want. Some of the team leads and management are amazing people and are very easy to work with and some are plain scary and unapproachable. 

 I feel as though the wages are incredibly unfair from employee to employee. Not only this, but from location to location. I am a firm believer that those working in behavior and high medical needs homes should make more than those working in ILO or SIL for example. I have been with the association for 4 years, have a field related diploma, and make less than some girls getting hired coming straight out of high school - I have tried to address this with payroll and my answer was that I should not be discussing wages with other staff - fair point, but still annoying as all get out. Ultimately though, across the company, wages are obscurely low for the sheer expectations we have to meet at work. 

I find this job worth while to me because while the wages are awful, I find this job to provide several very valuable learning opportunities as well as it fostering amazing staff client relationships. I will not pursue this job as a career because I can hardly support myself off of the wages, but for now while in school, it will do.

Clients were amazing - by far the most wholesome job I have ever had. 
Management and staff were hit and miss. 
Most were excellent; would assist in support and training. They loved their jobs and were good at it. They were compassionate and caring for clients and coworkers.
Some staff were not in the right industry of work - lazy, not compassionate, rough with clients, childish.
Management was cliquey, played favorites with staff, very blunt, snobby and two faced.

Was let go less than 1 week before 3 month probation (co workers were all shocked, AND I am by far not the only staff this has happened to). I was hired at the top pay for my position - because they pay on a scale. For the difference of $5/hr they could have hired someone who did not have the education, experience and qualifications 

Was bullied at one workplace within the Robin Hood system (all other work sites were wonderful).  Unfortunately the bully wasn't happy enough that I simply chose other work sites and areas to work in, and pressed for a platform in an admin meeting with me.  I declined the meeting and was fired.  I explained that a 6 month employee could not argue with a 17 year supervisor on allegations with no witnesses or proof.

Patterns replicate, and there's no reason to keep a supervisor on who repeatedly treats staff with contempt.

Many supervisors are wonderful there, safety and client quality of care is high.  A good opportunity to learn.

I worked for this company for many years. Rife with internal politics, you will be either pro management or pro client. There is no happy medium. I was often put into unsafe situations in order for the company to save a buck. The management does not care about the clients. The bottom line has always been about the dollar. 

Benefits are decent, but the salary is not competitive. Hours are often cut or clients grouped together in order to save money.

Management sticks together so you have no where to go if you have a problem and if they want to get rid of a staff, they will make things up and have even been known to 'frame' individuals in order to terminate them.

Pro: clients are great !

Overall, this is a terrible company if you are passionate about your job and nd personal advancement.

The Robinhood association supports many unique people in their day to day lives and is worth it for the life experience and lessons the people they support will give you. That being said the job can be mentally taxing at times as you navigate through complex situations,  but with the lack of support from admin within the association, inadequate staffing and lack of effective supports for both individuals and staff it leads to a negative impact on the mental health and the quality of  life for all involved.

What is the best part of working at the company?
I enjoyed helping people with various disabilities do day to day living. Watching them succeed and learn new things on a regular basis. Every day was different! 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The Lack of consistent hours. Some individuals were aggressive at times so that brought in a lot of different challenges of it's own. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
It was lively, busy, fun, challenging at times, and upbeat. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Every day was different because I didn't work bfor the same individuals every day

I love the Robin Hood Association. It’s the ultimate student job. You can make your own schedule, and you only need to pick up one shift every three months. You can work as much or as little as you like. 
The people are awesome, too. The organization genuinely cares about its employees and the clients they serve. They set you up for success with lots of training and lots of opportunities to seek help from supervisors if you need. I have never felt judged for not knowing something. 
There are lots of opportunities to apply for internal postings in order to have a more steady schedule, too.

Robin Hood is a segregated organization that keeps the people that they support insulated and controlled.  The opportunity for real choice is not there; despite RHA having access to hundreds of thousands of donor dollars.  They are more interested in their "facilities" than in creating real lives for people. 

Further, many of their management have zero education.   They started working there as 17 year old kids, and 35 years later are now management doing the same things that were done in the 80's.  

They keep people in sheltered workshops or enclaves instead of helping them get real inclusive employment.

The work is incredibly rewarding, you learn a lot, and get to help improve quality of life for several individuals, however, managers can be a disaster most of the time. Theres not a lot of room for advancement, and its obvious they favor employees. Benefits are only if you get a certain amount of hours per year, and you can get in trouble if you need to take sick days/leave. The job itself isnt for the faint hearted, and requires a lot of time and dedication, its amazing work but management can make it really tough

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Disability support worker 109 salaries reported	$19.44 per hour
Team leader 9 salaries reported	$24.01 per hour
Engineering team leader 8 salaries reported	$28.24 per hour
Residential team leader 3 salaries reported	$28.24 per hour
Program leader 4 salaries reported	$28.24 per hour

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