WJS Canada

Very toxic staff and management

My family just found a 10 year old runaway thats being abused by one of the caretaker families and was almost pushed down a flight of stairs.

WJS sticks to their vision and values an their mission of providing individualized and culturally responsive support. I have had positive experience with WJS Canada.

This company probably has some professional staff and may have some ethical standards and operate according to procedures in an effective way for the clients and community. But that's not what I experienced at all. Questionable hiring practices (I found the ad on Craigslist, should have been my first red flag). Staff letting youth clients "bend rules" to make the foster care experience run smoother. I was hired by a contractor for this company and the staff at WJS dropped the ball filing my paperwork. I had to follow-up with them myself to find out they "forgot". Despite not having police clearance I did training shifts on site with a youth in care. It was obvious that the homes are a drop in for the youth and the contractor (as nice as she was) had little to no control over the youth in her care. In fact, I learned as much about the staff's personal life as I did about the youth. The contractor did RAVE about how much she was $$$$ making to run a foster home for WJS. How previous workers drank on the job, how she bribed the teen to keep the peace and WJS staff would "always have your back or turn a blind eye" to things sometimes. Follow-up with these people is a nightmare. They never respond to emails or calls the same day. They ignore messages and don't return calls. Even when you do get ahold of someone they make excuses or have no idea what's going on. Unless they need something from you. It seems like there's a revolving door of staff at every level. And I can see why. Even the guy who drank on his shifts as a youth care giver got fed up with how half-*ssed this company is and quit, and that says a lot. If you have a troubled youth in their care I would recommend taking a good look at how their behaviour is improving or degrading to determine what kind of WJS experience you're getting. This is the same wasted resources, cut corners, lack of support from the employer, lack of communication, misuse of funds and b.s. lip service that has come to plague the child and youth service sector and resulted in the burnout of many dedicated staff. While making companies like WJS ridiculous amounts of money for taking care of teens who in reality are out sleeping in cars, doing things they shouldn't with people that are preying on them. Believe the other poor reviews. If you look you'll see the same pattern to all of them. For a reason.

As somebody who is in voluntary care with WJS, there are some things I would like to point out that have had me taken aback. They claim it is voluntary yet in order to leave I have to get permission from staff. My privacy is non-existent, staff enter my room while I'm not home, some staff will walk in house without a shirt on in the summer since it's hot. House maintenance is lacking, lots of burnt out lightbulbs, marks on walls, leaks, etc; Some caregivers are non-punctual, sleep in, and out-of-touch with the work they are being paid not to do. Management is impossible to get ahold of, always claiming to be in meetings, never returning calls/texts even after days. From a internal point of view, this business is not professional in the least bit, I would avoid all business dealings with them if possible.