Pros
Many of the people who work at TWC truly care for the kids. Senior staff have worked there for many years and are well versed in how to handle kids and can be good sources of information when it comes to kids.
Cons
There are no individual session times for you and your clients. If you are lucky, you could get 2 45 minute sessions in a week. Otherwise, this is milieu style therapy at best. Mostly, you will be running a household, managing domestic duties, telling kids not to do things, and enforcing rules. It's being a step-parent/mentor/babysitter and then a therapist. The therapist staff is split between veterans who have worked their way up the management chain by sticking around and brand new therapists who have no experience. Mental health workers are generally well-meaning people who are given way too much responsibility to manage the level of care that the clients require. They promote internally and the veteran staff are not necessarily qualified to manage others, let alone lead treatment. There are people in management positions who do not know how to formulate treatment plans nor how to write clinical notes. It's a political sort of set up and if you shake the right hands and keep the right secrets, you can make 50k a year without a license or the skills to get a job anywhere else. That is...if the boss likes you. The interactions between the staff can, (and did in the house I work in), include physical violence, verbal abuse, and contribute to an overall culture of unprofessionalism. The population being served brings plenty of hardships, the addition of staff "drama," truly impacts and adds to the difficulties the kids already come with. However, these issues are often under-addressed or left to fester because of the loyalty among long-term staff and the high turn over rate. They will not fire people. Not even people who egregiously disobey policy. Threats are commonly made though, and the commitment to gossip and closed door bashing of one another has surely drive people to quit. Kids will physically assault staff. It happens frequently. Kids will use illegal drugs in the facilities, steal from one another and staff, and fight each other. Kids will call you names, disrespect you, and will not trust you. If you invest, you can make a difference. But, the environment, culture, and lack of support within the company will make the job of helping the kids that much more difficult.