During the weekday when kids are in school the staffing shifts are:

2 youth care workers (YCW) 3 – 11 p.m.

1 youth care leader (YCL) 3 p.m. -midnight

1 nightshift worker – midnight until 9:30 a.m.

1 housemom – 7 a.m. – 3 p.m.

1 unit manager - 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. (same in summer)

1 caseworker - 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. (same in summer)staff

Weekends/summer

1 nightshift – midnight until 11 a.m.

YCL 11 a.m. – 11 pm.

YCW 9:30 a.m. – 9:30 p.m.

YCW 12 p.m. – 12 a.m.

I’m a YCW, on a regular 3 p.m. shift we would come in early for pre-shift and as co-workers talk about what we are going to do for the day, how the day was yesterday, and maybe what things we are going to bring up in group because the housemom had issues at lunch time, etc.

At 3 p.m. the shift starts. One staff member goes and picks up the in-town students from school in our 15 passenger van. One staff stays back for the elementary school and CVEP drop offs and one staff walks over to our on campus school – Schaller- at 3:40 p.m. and picks up the kids that attend school there.

Generally by 4 p.m. everyone is back and we have a snack followed by group with staff and the youth. We talk about how the day went, how we could do better or what went great. We also talk about what we are going to do that night.

Then the youth have time to do an afternoon activity such as football, or play games, or cards, or we may end up doing a community work project such as mowing lawns, which raises money for the house’s summer camping trips and other special activities that might not be budgeted.

Supper is at 5 p.m. every night. Routine and structure is what makes Ranch Ehrlo successful. After supper it’s chores – set and clear the table, washing and drying dishes, sweep and mop, clean bathrooms, clean the boot room and vacuuming. If some kids struggle with chores we do ‘hurdle help’ where staff will assist youth. Nobody likes to clean bathrooms.

After chores is downtime, a kid who has the chore to mop can’t start until the sweeper is finished, etc so the youth hang out in the common area and use that time for youth to be social with one another and learn healthy relationship building skills or the youth can go in their room and take time to themselves.

Once all the chores are done, around 6:30 we have group again to talk about how the afternoon went and talk about evening plans. Evenings could include going into Regina for swimming, bowling, a movie, or take advantage of one of the Ehrlo Sport Venture Leagues which are free and well planned. Sport Venture also gives us a gym on Wednesday. The kids love playing conspiracy – a form of dodgeball.

We try to be back at the unit at 9 p.m. We have snack and tidy up our mess. There is usually some down time and kids will brush their teeth and some will shower – others shower in the morning.

For kids under 13 – 9:30 p.m. is room time with lights out at 10 p.m.

For kids over 13 – 10 p.m. is room time lights out at 10:30 p.m.

Then its paperwork time for staff. We use a system called ETO where we house all the documents for reporting things about the youth – if they make a phone call, if they get into a fight or any note worthy events, positive or negative. These reports get sent back to their social workers, the caseworkers and the unit managers. We also do daily progress reports.  Another big thing to do during this time is to decompress and keep yourself sane by talking to your co-workers.