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QUOTE (easternpiro1 @ May 11, 2011 - 11:27 PM)

>NICE! ....wait... you LOVED IT?!? what sort of group home did u work at?! lol! j/k depending on the program and the way its run bymanagement, working at a residenital facility can be pretty fun! BUT if you have poor management and staff... OMG. those damn kids will definately capitalize.
lol. Yes, I loved it. Granted, at times I felt like nothing more than a glorified babysitter- but you learn to deal. And we did have a sibling pair with significant personality disorders and had to remove them bc of safety issues for all the other kids... but aside from that....
I worked at a residential group home that works with child protective services... so the kids that got placed there were ones that had been removed from their families bc of drugs or abuse. While it seems morbid to say I loved it, it wasn't the fact that they got removed that I liked, it was the bond I was able to make with the kids and the difference you start seeing in them as they realize they're safe and cared for.
Watching psychological reactivity was especially interesting at times.. just watching how kids interacted after such traumatic situations and how they were able to rebound fully was absolutely amazing.
The most rewarding part for me was watching the family change to get the kids back, and the kids actually getting to go home to a safe, loving environment... But that was also the most heart wrenching part of the job... I got attached to a little 2 y/o girl I worked with for months... actually considered looking into fostering her if the parents rights did get terminated... luckily they got to go home to the grandma instead.
Staff I worked with was amazing. Everything was taken care of and the only issues we ever had was when the CPS case managers didnt stay on top of the case files... which happened a lot.... other than that I loved working there. Actually got offered a full time job working in the group home after graduation.. but I really want to get my doctorate, so I turned it down for now.