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Originally Posted by BJewels79  Does it need to be complete silence in the background (I worked for another WAH company before and there could be no background noise.)? In just over a month, I'll only have the two youngest at home during the day and making calls is completely doable with just them. Esp. since they normally do a nap while my oldest is in school. Plus with DHs schedule (he's on a 2/2/3 schedule), I can work some on the days he is off. With my oldest at home right, he is way too wild and hyper to get anything done on the phone! LOL
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Originally Posted by verarae I've been reading this thread and thought the peer counselor position looked perfect for me so I checked it out (thanks LizzyQ!). The county I am in just finished hiring so they weren't taking apps. (man, am I always a day late and a $ short?!). A neighboring county has not started the program but are hiring in Sept. The director said that she would take my name and that I should call back for more details since she didn't know all the answers to my ?'s but she was thinking that to fit the requirements I would have to be in the program. Does anybody know about this? And, while technically I qualify, we are doing fine financially and I don't feel right taking the benefits so that I can take the job. Anybody with pc experience?
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Congrats BJJewels! I actually run the PC program for my local WIC office so feel free to ask any questions, I might be able to help. The PC program recently received a large amount of money to start up programs in clinics that do not already have this program in place, not all are doing it yet, but that is why there are many new programs starting up, hiring. I tell my PCs that the background doesn't have to be silence but try to avoid screaming children in the background because it can be unsettling to a mom who isn't used to child noise, etc... I make all my calls from home with 3 children and so do my PCs, we all work from home. It really isn't that difficult, I do calls in small sections of time, one call while children are coloring then I set them up with another project, make another call. The great thing about the PC program is the work isn't that bad. I try to make most of my regular calls on certain days and then others I don't work that much unless a mom calls me. Every clinic handles it a little differently but my PCs are on call 7 days a week, from 7-10pm, some even take night calls but I leave that up to them. I am on call myself during those hours for my PCs to call me with medical issues. I don't require them to answer every single call but check the cell phone while cooking dinner, later after kids are in bed, etc... so if a mom does call, then she can receive help quickly. If you can swing the 2 week training then in the end, the job will be worth it. The nice thing about WIC is that they often offer more education chances, conferences, etc.. so if you get in the door with them, you have the potential to do more later down the road.
verarae- Some clinics will take PCs that have not been on WIC but for some it is a requirement. My position as the supervisor doesn't have that requirement but all my PCs have to have been on WIC. Most of the PCs in my state have all been WIC moms. I have heard that if a clinic can't find PCs that have been on WIC that they might open it up to non-WIC moms, but in my experience we have not had an issue finding interested people.
Locally, it's up to 20 hrs per week. My kids can be playing/crying/whatever in the background. They actually said it may be better since this will be basically a mother to mother position...for the other person to hear my kids...to know I've gone through the same stuff etc.I have no idea about having to be in the program. Nothing was said to me...of course, I am in the program, that's how I found out about it, our nutritionist asked me to apply at our appointment!
