College Forward Reviews

- run by people who have forgotten or never learned how to take care of program staff and AmeriCorps coaches. - reluctant to change as an organization - asks for feedback and then pushes back/ignores it when received - depending on your placement or role, you could be drowning in work on bored often - exploitative towards AmeriCorps members - coaches are expected to do the work of social workers and counselors but without the pay or structural/organizational support needed to be successful in lieu of actual social work education/training/licensing - some of upper management has a good heart and is too overworked to be effective, others are malicious or negligent which is also a form of abuse when it comes to already overworked staff/AmeriCorps members - terrible lack of follow-through or just thoroughness in thinking through an entire process, leading to tons of gaps in planning, execution, structural support, etc. that in turn makes AmeriCorps members' lives miserable - culture of performative social justice from upper management; they talked a lot about DEI this year and yet the organization harms women and people of color the most - culture of spinning/concealing/refusing to see the truth in order not to admit fault to stakeholders, funders, etc. but this ends up holding the organization back because it cannot improve without looking at its own shortcomings first - everyone can tell when upper management isn't being transparent and it creates a culture of distrust and silencing - lack of accountability for certain people in powerful positions who made life difficult for the people who worked under them - due to an organizational mistake this year that resulted in "disallowed" hours from AmeriCorps, some coaches had to work 50+ hour weeks, worked on Saturdays and Sundays, constantly searched for additional hours that would fulfill requirements if they wanted to get the Segal education award they were promised - burnout city; terrible for mental health; some coaches couldn't take PTO at all for months due to this mistake - very proud of new partnerships yet utterly unprepared to take them on, which hurts students, coaches, program managers - PD is thrown together last minute, up to the whim of whoever's putting it together because they don't have a culture of asking coaches for what they'd like to see/experience - so disorganized it hurts students; for example, whether through poor caseload planning or inability to retain coaches, some students have had 5-6 coaches in one year and have actually asked whether it was them- the students- that did something wrong instead of College Forward - outdated Access curriculum, poorly developed Completion curriculum (they keep trying to recycle things instead of creating new material that reflects today's students) - claims to put students first but feels like Salesforce/Copilot first - blames outside factors (bad coaches, rough recruitment cycle) for poor retention instead of realizing there are very valid and real things that make this a terrible place to work - patronizing to AmeriCorps members - it's not explicit but you can tell in the way they don't include the people doing the direct service in any decision making on curriculum, best practices, etc. Very top down instead of using the coaches' knowledge working with students to inform better change/structure. They ask for but don't actually listen/trust coaches' or even program managers' feedback. - some permanent staff do not even bother learning the names of AmeriCorps members. This and many other tiny examples demonstrate just how little thought and care is put into supporting coaches. AmeriCorps members are treated as an afterthought and sometimes a nuisance. - communication is so poor organizationally it's common not to have any idea what a different sector of the organization is doing/what their day-to-day looks like - gatekeeping or withholding of information is sometimes used to keep AmeriCorps members in the dark about how AmeriCorps works, what members' options are, how the education award works (often in an effort not to lose more members but in reality just adds on to the pile of evidence that AmeriCorps' members are not valued/supported/cared for as people) - overall experience with College Forward was extremely traumatizing, exploitative, and terrible for mental health

I worked at the organization for 3 years and saw it go through a variety of strategic changes. During this time there was a high amount of staff turnover. While the organization provided strong programming for the student population it served, they did not have a strong plan for capacity building for these programs. The existing programs took a backseat to new directions that we no longer student-focused. There's a high level of burnout for staff and they did not have a sustainable plan to address the constant stress. Upper management tries to be open to feedback but is often unresponsive or slow to create any lasting improvements for their employees. Additionally, equity and diversity within the organization is a low-priority and brushed aside when brought up. The AmeriCorps members come in with a great purpose and willingness to create a lasting impact only to be jaded with the service provided.