support worker

concierge

program manager

fundraiser

relief worker

The Salvation Army

I have work for the salvation army for 5 years working in different centre male hostel and women alike, and in each centre there was poor manager staffing, which allow the staff who worked with the clients at risk to abuse both verbal and physical, often there was no radio or walky talky that was working so that staff member can carry around and communicate with each other if we was in trouble, fire or an accident, not to mention if we needed to find a manager for support, if someone went on sick/on holiday/a problem at home which they can not come in for, there was no cover for this person and in some centre they worked in small team which meant if a fire or accident happen, we could not sort out the problem. No training was given in some centre which meant people with no first aid training like myself had to give first aid and in one of my cases it was a life or death situation, the hardiest part of my job was finding time for my clients to help them and do the paper needed because you had to be on duty 4 days a week, where you can not do paper work, you interview and welcome new clients in the centre do hourly health checks on the building, supporting maintain do they work, clearing out rooms of clients who have abandon/ dealing with outside services/ sort out actives for the clients to do/ sorting breakfast out and staying with them through that time period of 3hours in the morning and the same for dinner. As well doing hand over meeting 3 times a day, which take an hour each meeting and dealing with any accident/fires/ complaint’s as well as supporting the client make calls to the benefit/welfare places and deal with other person issues. We would also have to go on viewing with the clients and go out with them on other personal trip like rehab/detox/hospital/courts/etc. The morning shift start from 7:30am to 8am depending on the centre and you would not get a break until after the second hand over which ends at 2:30pm if you’re lucky.
On the one or two days you have off duty but in work in the week depending on the centre (if you working 6 days a week or 5 days a week) you have to see all of your 10 clients complete and update risk/needs/support plans plus reviews, which is about 20 pages all together for one client, which take an hour if you know the client then. We then being to help the client with they own personal issues, which can take up to another hour depending and I have to write up every thing I have done. After doing this with 10 clients I then have to do cluster meeting, which all sounds good and easy but you have to see your clients twice in a month, you still have to do hand over meeting plus you have to write up any accidents or outing with other clients, reply back to all your email for the week, as well as finding a manager to sign off your paper work and do supervision, which can be up to 3 hours AND thats if you are not pulled out to help do duty work because they are so short of staff which happen nearly all the time!
on top of this in every centre they was a case of management bulling staff under them i.e. staff that was not trained up for thing was forced to do the work and when things go wrong they was put on a disciplinary and still no training was given.

e.g. staff asked to clean a room... you need to use correct cleaning equipment and know how to use them for our safety no to mention you need log what you pack and store it correctly... if you have no training and thing go missing, client say your stealing from them and the staff member who packed things up has to pay out of their own packet.

another bulling from management I saw there was two women slim staff members that come often into work with leggings short shirt and nice top or leggings with a long nice jumper covering their bums, even I used this style at time because it looked nice and wasn’t a suit. one day one of my team worker come in she normal wear trouser and a big jumper because she is a big lady but it was coming summer, so she come in differently from the bottom of her neck to her knee's she was covered wearing a dress, which made her professional looking, she was sent home because her legs was showing, so she went home and changed, the next week she come in with the same dress but with legging, she was told she can not wear legging and was asked to go home and changed the following week went passed and my team member asked people why they was wearing leggings no one know of the policies and we looked it up! What she was wearing was acceptable, so she come in again with a longer dress with legging and everyone else coming in with legging, she was put on a disciplinary and sent home. No one else was spoken to and a new policy was made that day no legging allowed and that’s when people were told about it but no one was sent home.
If my team member was slim there would be no issues but she wasn't.
The other work staff changed from legging to tights and no complains coming from management but when my team member wore tights she was turn away at the door of her work place and every time she was sent away her money was docked.

another time a case on myself where I had to go home early because for my children, the management know in 2 weeks before hand but they did not arrange or change my shift to accommodate my situation or even give me that day as a holiday when the time come they said I could not leave and put me on a disciplinary.

another time as I mention the over load of work we have one of client was kicking off in the centre and their key worker was in but not on duty, so she should have been doing her paper work but she come out to talk and sort out the issue because she done this she did not complete her paper work on time and was put on a disciplinary and capably, when she told them that was not fair, they told her she was unapproachable and unable to communicate with people, yet a month before hand she was awarded the best key worker of the year for being able to communicate and able to approach her at all time.

The list of different bulling from the manager goes on and on.

The work at The Salvation Army is challenging and fast paced so it always keeps you busy and theres always more work to do so you are never left with nothing to do.

The co-workers are helpful, reliable and easy to work in a team with which is required within the environment because the jobs cannot be done without the effort of every co-worker.

The management of the company is excellent as we are always given opportunities to work hard and efficiently and to try out new tasks, the environment is exceedingly fast paced and organized to meet the rota at the end of each day. 

I have learned how to tag clothes successfully by understanding the order in which tasks needs to be done such as coding them correctly and neatly. how to take care of the merchandises properly making sure they are in best condition and are in the correct position of the store once its time for the stock to be put out. This I found to be the hardest task of the job because you need to understand the correct codings for each item and making sure the stock is in the right place in the store. The clothing also needs to look colorful and attractive for the customers so we color block the merchandise by putting colorful stock to the front.

I have also gained confidence by working with customers and working closely with co-workers which busted my esteem and made me manage to work faster and hard working while gaining new experiences and skills development. 

I found everything about volunteering enjoyable as there was never a dull moment I was always kept busy and achieved my goals for the day of successfully helping my co-workers gain the rota for the day.

I was recently terminated for being attracted to the opposite sex. The management in each department is  atrocious. Each department has tension with each other. The front desk department doesn’t like the education department. The aquatics department doesn’t get along with the education department. The Salvation Army terminates people at an alarming high rate. If your not a religious person, the Salvation Army will try to force their religious believes on you and try to make it seem like they want to follow those guidelines to teach the children. Not to mention there are no real discipline techniques for out of control children. The kids in the after school program swear at the group leaders and disrespect them and walk out of classrooms without permission. The education supervisor is never there when the kids are misbehaving. Not all of the education staff are bad. There are a few education staff who are tremendous. But there are a lot who are just on their phones on Instagram and Facebook and Snapchat and they don’t pay attention to the kids especially when they are in the gym. There is only one or maybe two staff that’s actually watching the kids. When the kids are eating dinner, there are a ton of staff from different departments who come to the village hall to dig their hands in the kids food.

So a typical day at work was really good, you could expect to go there to a friendly and happy environment and everyone smiling and happy. When I first stared there it was different church I was working at and I was thinking "would they like me?" but when I went in there was offering me so much things cakes, food and more after a couple of days I felt like I have known all of them for years.I learned a lot of leadership skills there because me and my other intern had to come with activities and set up one to one with people who we didn't know so that consist of us going on the street, knocking on people's door and asking if we could have a one to one with them which I grew more confidence in myself after doing it. My co-workers were amazing they were all university student so I was the youngest but they made me feel at home and I felt safe being with them and learned a lot from them also. The hardest part of the job was there was a lot of work to do but we had little time and I did doubt myself a bit but I thought come on you can do it so I just got on but that was the only hardest part. The most enjoyable part of the job was getting the meet the children and going to there youth club and just talking to them but also engaging in with what they was doing also we got breakfast every Sunday before the church service so I loved it who doesn't like full English in the morning.

The Bridge Project is a drop in day centre for homeless and vulnerable adults having difficulties coping with life at a particular time. The centre was opened in 2002 by Princess Anne and is part of The Salvation Army Citadel Complex. Our centre has three permanent staff members and 25 volunteers who work alongside other agencies helping the most vulnerable adults in Blackpool. We open at 10.00am until 2.15pm and during this time our centre serves hot food and drinks and offers personal washing facilities four days a week.  Other organisations attend our centre offering assistance with medical health, alcohol and substance issues, adult learning facilities and lots more. Our aim is to provide a complete support package for these vulnerable people and to encourage them to engage with any services that would benefit them.
 
We are currently receiving over 100 adults attending our centre on a daily basis. This has increased dramatically over the past 12 months. As an example last month we gave out 52 food parcels and 23 toiletry packs. Our centre runs purely on donations and the generosity and goodwill of the general public.

I did 4 weeks mandatory work at the Salvation Army charity shop, as ordered by the job centre (30 hours per week).  The management thought it was not worth teaching me about the till (for 4 weeks).

Unfortunately, there was a difficult, elderly person in the backroom who said things like "what's your problem?' or "what you lost?"  Even though the assistant manager  showed me how to measure ladies clothes correctly, this person said angrily: "no, you don't do it that way!"

I  got into conflict with staff by trying to do things correctly or 'by the book'.  They even objected to me using a list of clothing items with the correct codes.  The women made me feel like an idiot for not knowing about women's clothing or sizes.

I spent a lot of time steaming, labelling, and hanging clothes.  I then put out clothes on the appropriate racks.  I often found clothes in the wrong place, or incorrectly labelled. 

As a christian organisation, they throw away items which have anything to do with sex or horror, such as books or DVDs.

There were empty hangers in the changing rooms after clothes had been stolen, but it was not their policy to chase thieves. 

When I was not there (one day a week) someone confided that the women were slagging me off.

The days were long, and I was glad when it was all over.

A typical day at work would be serving the many different types of people that come in store (old and young) interaction is key when working with the customers and just a small conversation with each person makes the whole lot of difference when serving them.

During the day job roles change so that i might be restocking shelves or putting out new stock onto clothes rails or tagging stock to go out the next day.

Finishing the day off I will do the mandatory stock count allowing the manager to work out our outgoing sales and a check on what must go out the next day.

My manager is a friendly person who you can ''have a laugh with'' the work is done on time and he makes sure it is done to a professional standard while retaining an essence of fun and relaxed ''vibes'' in the air.

My co-workers too are a lively and friendly bunch we all finish our tasks assigned and do it while maintaining a conversation and a bit of a joke.

The most enjoyable part about the job is being able to keep a relaxed, fun way about the shop while still doing the work assigned. Nothing is forced upon us and we all take it with a breath of fresh air because there are no grudges and everyone is friendly with one another in the work place.

I worked in the stock room with a few people and sometimes it was a small work place that we had. I would attach tags to clothes and other items and then I would place them neatly on a hanger ready to go onto to the rail to either get steamed or go straight onto the shop floor. when I worked on the shop floor I would greet customers, I would place the clothes that were on the portable rail and place them on the rails where other items of clothing would be that was the same  as the item I had, I would also clean the hangers and put items of clothing back to where they originally came from. I would also take responsibility to keep my work station clean, steam clothes while being responsible to I would not either burn myself or anyone that was around me. 
I learned how to be responsible, how to manage my time, how to work as part of a team. 
I worked well with all of my co-workers, we got on and I became friends with almost everyone. 
The hardest part of my job was keeping up with the fast pace, but after being there for a while i soon pick up the speed and became faster when doing certain tasks that i was asked. 
The most enjoyable part of my job was meeting new people on a regular basis and improving more on my communication skills.

A typical day working at The Salvation Army consisted of me preparing activities for the young people to partake in.
Ages ranged from 10-16 so a range of activities were required for everyone to be able to have fun with something that would interest them. 
Working here helped me widen my understanding of why people act in certain ways towards others and and how to help them over come problems, focusing their negative emotions onto other actions.
Teamwork would be present with myself and co-workers to design tasks fun yet challenging for the people partaking in them. We would also create questionnaires for the young people, this allowed us to improve on our activities so they would have more fun as well as helping us find out more about them as individuals.
The hardest part of working at The Salvation Army was learning how to deal with the range of behaviours from the children attending, and what it was that made them react in that way.
However the most enjoyable part of the job was actually partaking in the activities alongside the children attending as well as other co-workers, this helped us to relate more and trust was then given to us.

As per my CV I am part of the management team for a 108 bed hostel for former rough sleepers, in Westminster London.
I manage the substance misuse team (frequently dealing with dual diagnosis cases) and am on-call duty manager c. one week per month.

I supervise staff, review income, support residents into ETE or to generally recover from multiple physical and psychological issues.
I review support plans, risk assessments and new referrals and also take some responsibility for facilities management.

Certain staff are somewhat demotivated as the organisation is undergoing a restructuring process and people are having to re-apply for their jobs and the roles are changing.

The hardest part of my job is balancing the need to support and develop staff whilst challenging poor performance and driving ups standards.

The best part of the job is working with people - and trying to help them achieve their goals and aspirations and ultimately prepare them for the transition to independent living.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Support worker 4 salaries reported	£28,616 per year
Concierge 1 salary reported	£13.75 per hour
Program manager 1 salary reported	£31,119 per year
Fundraiser 1 salary reported	£55,504 per year
Relief worker 3 salaries reported	£13.18 per hour

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