Pros
In my nearly two years at LA Family Housing (LAFH), I have seen an incredible amount of growth within the organization. Ending homelessness is challenging work, but LAFH shows a strong commitment to staff by providing opportunities for wellness and growth within the organization and by being open to and responsive to feedback from staff at all levels. While much of the executive leadership team is relatively new, they are energetic, passionate about the mission of ending homelessness, and committed to making LAFH the best possible place to work. One of the ways LAFH stands out is through their commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion within the organization. After receiving feedback from staff amidst the racial justice reckoning in 2020, LAFH responded quickly by forming a DEI taskforce and bringing consultants on board to build a DEI strategy. Since then, we have seen numerous steps taken to advance DEI to ensure all staff feel safe, welcomed, and included at work.
Cons
LA Family Housing has experienced a great deal of growth over the last couple years in response to growing community need, nearly doubling in size since 2020. As a result, we have experienced some growing pains, including a lack of a lack of a strong internal communications structure to help keep everyone in the loop on new developments and programmatic changes across the agency. However, the organization's leadership has taken active steps to address these growing pains, including by hiring new staff to help build a strong internal communications program and launching a "resilient recovery plan" to ensure staff have the support and tools to work effectively without being overworked and overwhelmed.