Sherwood Community Services - Non-profit organization in Lake Stevens - 402 91st Ave NE, USA

Terrible company to work for. 1. Base pay right now starts $23/hr with a $2000 signing bonus, so why are five year long experienced employees paid less? If you’ve worked there for a few years, I highly recommend discussing your salary first with a new employee, then with your managers to advocate for at least a $1/hr raise per years of employment. 2. Benefits are an issue every year. In an effort to keep insurance costs down, they switch their insurance provider every year. People with doctors, therapists, or prescriptions understand how frustrating and labor-intensive this is to deal with *every year.* Good luck. 3. Mileage reimbursement doesn’t make sense. Mileage reimbursement begins either at your first client, or when you pass the physical office building. Employees are encouraged to work from home, but if they begin their work day at their home office (which employees were given a stipend of $200 to set up during the pandemic) and drive in the opposite direction of the office building toward their first client, they do not get paid for that mileage. For example, if an employee lives in Marysville, begins their day at their home office, and their first client is in Smokey Point, that employee either needs to drive back to Lake Stevens to begin their mileage at the physical Sherwood headquarters, or forego all mileage toward the first client. 4. Rudderless DEI committee. Their DEI committee has been active for nearly six years with little to nothing to show for it. The group of about 5 white women and 1 token Latina spends the entire two hour meeting every month talking about what movies they’ve recently seen, struggles in their marriages, the books they just finished, and how to get more members recruited into the committee. When I suggested that we focus on doing actual work and affecting change, I was reprimanded and one of the members of the committee got so upset that she quit (awwww, one less white woman on the DEI committee, what a bummer). 5. Lack of delegation. Some people are excellent with people and clients. Some people are excellent at talking to employers and creating job opportunities for clients. Very rarely is one person good at both, and yet Sherwood asks every employment specialist to do it all, regardless of their strengths or weaknesses. I’ve seen three different coaches (who are phenomenal at job development) be asked to not return to a business because they either weren’t supervising their client or because they didn’t work well with the employer. This could be mitigated by adopting the same policy that many other employment services in the area have: have one position for job developers and one for job coaches. Let people work in their strengths, instead of forcing them into an opportunity to fail. 6. “Flexible scheduling.” Let’s all be honest here, we know “flexible scheduling” equals “UNPREDICTABLE scheduling.” Sherwood will tell you that their employees have weekends and holidays off, but this simply isn’t true. As a job coach, if your client works a weekend or a holiday, you are also required to be there. Otherwise, anything that the client does during their shift without you will be blamed on you. “Client committed time theft even though you were there for 4 hours of their 6 hour shift? Why weren’t you there to watch them clock out?” 7. Client employment prioritized over client safety and preference. Every individual has a right to meaningful, gainful employment, but when Employment First is prioritized over the individuals’ safety and preference, people are put in danger. For example, a client who habitually removes their shoes regardless of their surroundings should not be encouraged to work on a construction site clean-up crew, and yet such a placement was suggested by the program director at the time. There is so much more, but these are the main points. If you want to be valued, supported, and fairly compensated, this is NOT the company to work for.

I had the privilege of working for and witnessing the impact of Sherwood's services. During my time with them, I saw firsthand the transformative power of their programs. Moreover, my connection with this nonprofit runs deeper, as a family member received their services years ago, and I witnessed the incredible progress and development that occurred.

My daughter was born with a rare genetic disorder that limits her mobility and speech. We were referred to Sherwood by our doctors and we are so glad we set up speech, OT , and PT here! The staff is wonderful to say the least. Every therapist genuinely cares for your child and helps supply your child with every thing they need to be successful! They make the transition from early intervention to pre school so easy and are the best advocates. Thank you so much to Jody, Sarah, Svetlana, and Kimberly for making therapy fun, stress free, and an overall great experience. Jillian and I will miss you!

Our experience with Sherwood was amazing and smooth. We can not rave enough about Hannah, she gave us the tools and techniques to help our daughter thrive in language and speech. She truly cares and made us feel at ease.

I have been using Sherwood Community Services for each of my children (for over a year now)and have nothing but wonderful things to say about everyone I have come in contact with through Sherwood!

Very nice. Kudos to the staff responsible for keeping the park clean.

Highly dedicated staff providing innovative inclusive services for children and adults with developmental delays

Wonderful Community Service Agency! Treat everyone like family.