Wayside Youth & Family Support Network - Framingham, Massachusetts

Yaya Gonzalez

i’m going to be 100% transparent. i have been in multiple different homes, cbats, hospitals. and when i tell you wayside was the worst experience i have ever been in, oh please believe it. this does not come from a place of hatred , but a place of truth. the three females who ran the program when i was there were so extremely unprofessional. they would pick fights with the kids, and in a weird way, they were jealous of certain girls and it showed. they would pick favorites, be more lenient to others based off of who would do more favors for them. don’t get me wrong, there are some staff who worked there who i absolutely loved. they were caring, but it was very hard for them to do their jobs because they had to listen to such irresponsible higher up’s. and they deserved better because they were disrespected also. the conditions of the rooms, the bathrooms, just the units in general were absolutely filthy. there was mice and no one really cared to clean the rooms for a new client. most of the staff ( not all ) gave off punishments based off of pettiness. they would take it to the extreme for something so small. why work with kids if you can’t control your emotions? this was such a mentally draining place. so much disgusting stuff goes on, from staff being sexual towards children, sharing wayyy too personal information, gossiping about other staff, showing/being too comfortable with certain clients. i remember when i tried to complain to the head of the program, she told me to pass the message and set up an appointment with my clinician. which i had already tried to multiple times, but clearly she thought she was some local celebrity. i do not wish this establishment on anyone. its truly terrible, and reading these other comments and seeing the terrible experiences people went through is heartbreaking. this place truly needs a wash down. seriously .

A C

I’ll start off by saying the 1 star is for the actual “counseling services”. I would give each of my children’s individual couselors 5 stars. My son has a Wayside counselor off site who is completely wonderful and my daughter’s counselor at the Framingham campus is stellar. She should be running the place as far as I’m concerned. She has been my saving grace through this nightmare…
BUT…
This place is an absolute JOKE. What is on their website compared to what ACTUALLY goes on there is laughable. Those stock photos look real nice ?! The women running the girls program are verbally abusive and neglectful. They haven’t properly handled even one of my MANY complaints and concerns. On the girls side the women in charge are all “besties” yaaay! ? so it’s an endless cycle of telling me my kid is lying, (when they’re not refusing to talk to me), and then covering up for each other even though I literally hear what’s happening there when I’m on the phone with my daughter. I heard a girl being denied medical care!! And…I’m so curious to hear the reason the girls weren’t being provided utensils to eat with until I had to get the state involved ?. There is ZERO positive reinforcement, clients are shamelessly labeled as “popular” and “lower functioning” by staff, they have little to no physical activity (even though they are supposed to go to the gym daily), the staff either doesn’t enforce or incorrectly enforce the rules (maybe it depends on if you’re popular or not? ‍♀️), and food is used as a reward or punishment. This is just a small list of the numerous issues Ive tried to address to no avail. HORRIBLE. This place has done nothing for my kid except maybe teach her how to do laundry and sweep a floor. my attempts to contact the Senior Program Directo have been snubbed by each of the staff I have asked to connect me with him. They either don’t have his email(really? I highly doubt that), or they take a message that will be given to him. No response…Cool! I am giving him the benefit of the doubt that these messages never found their way to his desk rather than that they did and weren’t acknowledged… …
It is basically a college dorm for little girls with animals running the place. CAN’T WAIT to get my daughter home!!!! These girls are supposed to be getting help and guidance and leave there full of confidence. Wayside’s claims to do this, along with the positive client quotes posted all over the lobby, are a complete lie! Rather than leaving there better than she went in, she’s going to leave traumatized, full of knowledge on how to break rules and commit crimes, and will likely need years of therapy to deal with what went on there… makes me so sad. Tsk tsk…

My next step is State Rep. …

User8929

Time to really expose this place. There was mice crawling all over the place. Staff were abusive physically,verbally,and mentally. They would lock me in the quiet space for hours at a time. Staff allowed bullying(this happened to a ton of kids there). There were no groups or anything emotionally beneficial for these kids. This place was basically just a place for kids to rest their head the description of this place is not the reality of this place. The staff would play favorites and if you weren’t a staff favorite you weren’t payed attention to. Staff also would be a part of the bullying going on in this place….they would literally side with children against other children. Staff were constantly on their phone,they would bring blankets and heaters to their shift. I have not met one person who hasn’t left wayside with some type of trauma please do not send your kids here. There’s so many places were kids can get the help they really need. Idk how this place is still running.

Bonnie

I've been here twice, once around a year ago and now I currently still go (for the c-bat and the partial so i can't talk about the residential or academy) the reviews here SCARED ME but from what I heard the people who from these reviews should not work there don't seem to work here anymore. I was pretty lucky that the unit i was in was relatively calm. Out of many places I've been in I've never felt as supported as I do here. There are obviously things they should improve like their food but the staff here seem to really care about how they impact their kids which is honestly not very common in places like these so I'm super glad this is where I stayed during this time

Taylor Jones

if i could give it zero stars, i would. they are completely unprofessional. im a vegetarian and they didn’t have meatless options for me so i basically starved until my parents brought me food. there were mice running around. the clinician was very unprofessional, i met with her once and it was only to do a safety assessment and she swore at me during it. you could only call people during a certain time and they were extremely strict about it, it wasn’t even like once in the morning and once at night. you got 2 calls in the evening and that was that. i got pretty sick my 3rd day there and was put on bed rest which meant like i couldn’t leave my room or do group. i am 18 so i knew that i could sign myself out. they were extremely reluctant to do so. but the day after i got sick a staff member i think they called him Sway he came barging into my room screaming at me that i wasn’t sick and i needed to participate in group that day. i told him i was sick and he goes “you don’t have covid, you’re not sick” as if there aren’t other sicknesses that aren’t covid. he was being really aggressive towards me and yelling so i started crying. one of the other staff asked what was going on and he started saying i “felt threatened by him” and he said it in a way that insinuated that i felt threatened of him because of the color of his skin. which is not at all the case. i got upset bc he was being extremely aggressive w his words and you shouldn’t be yelling at kids while they’re in a program like that. needless to say i went home that day. i got no type paperwork when i left. they literally had me sign a piece of paper and pushed me out of the door. horrible place. don't send your children here. if you need a cbat i recommend wetzel center in worcester.

Rene Canales

I was here at 15 years old I’m 23 now and still suffer from extreme anxiety and ptsd from this place . If I was a parent I would never put my child in a situation full of hate , abuse and much more.

Jason Castiello

Of course they took down my review because they know how bad this place is to those kids, even the staff have it bad there

Leyner Perdomo

I’m a student in wayside academy,and I’m not gonna say all people are bad there is people there that actually wanna help you but other that don’t before this school I was a chill kid and now I hate that school more than anything that food it’s horrible they give detentions for no reason sometimes and this school is not what they say it is it may be helpful for some people but it’s not that same for others if you kid it’s not aggressive don’t send them here.