Pros
Supporting a population of kids who need it.
Cons
Leadership is extremely poor from the top. Toxic, poor office culture. The Executive Director has a vision but has no idea how to implement changes and didn’t hire anyone with enough skill to do the implementation. Debra often made sweeping changes to existing programs without listening to those who actually had to do the work. She was more interested in having things her way than achieving true success. Very absent from the job and not at all transparent though she expects you to be. We spent hours making charts to discuss changes that needed to be made to make the org more efficient only for NONE of these changes to be made because she was gone or couldn’t be bothered. She does not like to be criticized and removed or pushed out 9-11 staff members who dared to question her since her takeover. Staff members felt like she engaged in gaslighting behaviors. School staff members felt that she did not care to interact with them and treated them as if the schools work for her instead of partner with SSP. The “best” thing she was good at was hiring her lackeys from her previous jobs who are absolutely unqualified to work in education and with students. She likes to give people big titles such as CPO or Chief of Staff (why did we need these in a 16 person org) who had no idea how to perform their role. Her first Director of Mentoring and CPO both left within the year because they could not do the job well. Neither individual provided structure that they were supposed to provide. The Chief of Staff has allegedly admitted to being unprepared for her role and instead relied on more experienced staff members to do her work for her or make her decisions, throwing them under the bus when things did not go well. All three of these women worked with and followed Debra from their previous roles. Currently, at least 4 out of 10 or 11 of the staff followed Debra or knew her previously. Everyone is overworked, however, every team but Development had to account for their time and was scrutinized, with some staff members being required to present on their work while no one had a clue what other teams were doing. Staff felt distrusted. Everyone should be held equally accountable and this does not happen. Her front of line staff was asked to do things they were not trained for but trainings were always “coming” and had unrealistic caseloads (250-300 students per person) and were expected to see each student individually each quarter. Also, although the org supported high schoolers, none of the employees were required to be fingerprinted or background checked, which is awful. Staff members of color often felt ignored and/mistreated and even students alleged certain behaviors amongst staff that highlighted the difference in treatment. The mentorship program is a joke and has no real structure. Success metrics are over exaggerated. Hour long trainings once in a blue moon do not foster strong relationships between students of color and white collar mentors who have little to no idea how to relate to students. The org has an initiative that pairs NYPD officers with students. Given the climate of the country, judge that decision for yourself. Overall, the organization is chaotic and unstructured. Turnover is high and employees have been laid off due to the pandemic. The workers who are left are severely overworked. 10 people supporting 1100 students and their families. Bless them.
