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I work in a residential treatment center for boys in NY State. Large, private non-profit, we are paid by the counties and state social services / child welfare people. Most of our youth are black/hispanic and from urban areas of NY. I work in an independent living department, so my job is twofold. We have some kids in a transitional apartment program directly supervised by us, I tutor them, do behavioral counseling etc. We also run independent living groups (life skills stuff, mandated by NY state for youth in placement) for all the kids in the regular residential units (approx 200 kids between myself and 3 other staff). Write detailed progress notes on all of the above. I also developed the assessment system we use in the transitional program and track the youth 'scores' via daily checklists and log notes from myself and other staff.

It's insane.

NT

EDIT: As far as training, one of my BA concentrations was in Law/Social Science and I have about 100 hours of on-the-job clinical, group leadership and policy training. Our department is somewhere between a postgrad clinical position and a normal direct care position, usually people have to come into it with a large amount of experience in residential work. I started it at age 20 after being there as a tutor for 1.5 years, which was wild.

Currently working on getting an MSW and moving into a strictly clinical capacity.