Rachel's Career Journey
Rachel's first job after graduation was an HR position with an in-home nursing care agency. She was responsible for reviewing applications, interviewing, and checking references of all potential employees (personal care aids, CNAs, LPNs, RNs), along with holding orientations once a week for new employees that she hired. Rachel came to know about the position at COBYS through a new friend she had met at church who works in a similar position at COBYS. The job opening came through the HDFS listserv prior to it being posted on their website, and so she jumped on the opportunity!
Working at COBYS
Rachel's primary goal as a Resource Home Coordinator is to approve foster and adoptive families and place children into already approved families. She is primarily responsible for approving and training new families. Rachel holds an orientation twice a month for interested families talking about the foster care system and what the process of being approved to foster/adopt is like with COBYs. She also coordinates the trainings for their families. Offered 3 times a year, this is a 9 week training program reviewing a wide variety of topics with the purpose of educating and equipping the families. Three days a week Rachel receives referrals for potential placements and calls any families she has that she feels would be a good fit for that child(ren). Once a month Rachel also calculates statistics of the types of referrals they receive as well as the status of all of the families, to use as evaluative measures. Rachel says, "It is hard to say what a normal day is like. I could be reviewing applications and paperwork from new families,I could be doing an emergency placement of a child, filling in at appointments/meetings for my coworkers, etc!"
Rachel's Advice
Rachel highly encourages that students take advantage of internships. She says, "Some of my most meaningful experiences came through internships and I learned a lot about my strengths, weaknesses, likes and dislikes in the career field, through these experiences." Additionally Rachel also encourages students to take seriously the projects and assignments within HDFS. She recalls, "Many of the class assignments also involve introspection and working through one's own family and personal history and experiences. I believe having a better understanding of yourself and where you come from is so important when working in a helping position."