Northeast JobSight and Teleworks USA Provide Path to New Employment for Elliott Countian Tami Booher

Tami Booher had been working for the Elliott County Ambulance Service for more than two years when she learned her position had been discontinued and she would be laid off in the summer of 2020. While it wasn’t welcome news, it wouldn’t be long before she was back to work, thanks to the assistance she received from Teleworks USA.

Booher had learned about Teleworks USA’s services before she began working at the ambulance service, and looked into taking up a part-time, work-from-home position then. But, she says, she couldn't make that schedule work and fulfill her duties at the ambulance service, too.

Tami Booher

So, when she was laid off in 2020, she already had an idea that working from home might be a good fit.

“When I found out working from home was a real thing a few years ago, it always appealed to me,” Booher says, adding that a remote-work job became even more agreeable as the COVID-19 pandemic remained ongoing. “The COVID thing kind of really pushed it in high gear for me.”

Not long after her layoff, Booher stopped by her local Northeast Kentucky Career Center JobSight and spoke with Stephanie Kitchen, an expert career advisor who had worked with Booher before and actually helped her land the job at the ambulance service. This time, Kitchen helped certify that Booher was eligible for assistance from the Northeast JobSight’s Community Impact program, an initiative of the Eastern Kentucky Concentrated Employment Program (EKCEP) that can help cover costs for training, job prep, and other services.  

It was in speaking to Kitchen two years before that Booher also first learned about Teleworks USA, and this time she realized that a work-from-home position was a possibility.

“I thought I could really make this happen,” Booher says. “Because I had no other obligations, no job, I could go into it full-time now.”

Kitchen assisted Booher as she attended career-related workshops and completed assessments hosted by the Northeast JobSight. Booher also began Teleworks USA’s pre-screening process.

An initiative of EKCEP, Teleworks USA identifies and develops legitimate remote-work job opportunities with multiple national and global companies. Teleworks USA’s team of expert managers also helps prepare people for the jobs by upskilling them in customer service and technical support workshops, helping them craft strong résumés and hone their interviewing skills, and assisting them in applying for available remote-work positions they can work within their homes or nine Teleworks Hubs.

Only days after Booher began the process, she was connected with Lawrence County Teleworks Hub Manager Regina Tackett, who worked quickly to provide Booher with legitimate job leads. And it wasn’t long before Booher had accepted her first remote-work position.

“They were pretty quick to find me a replacement,” Booher says, “about a week and a half or two weeks. It wasn't long.”

Booher began training for her new job as a customer advocate in November for Concentrix, a global business services company specializing in customer engagement and improving business performance.

Booher says working from home comes with added benefits beyond a salary, including the lack of a commute to and from a brick-and-mortar office setting.

“It’s cheaper, you don’t have the expense on your vehicle because you don’t have to drive,” Booher says. “I mean, you don’t even have to get dressed up if you don’t want to.”

And working from home gives her more time to concentrate on her other work, too. Booher is also an artist, and because she doesn’t have to commute to work any longer, it provides her additional time within her studio when she’s off the clock.

“I can still be focused on my art,” she says.

Booher says she would recommend anyone who may be looking for a job to stop by and visit their local Kentucky Career Center JobSight or Teleworks Hub for the services they offer, and even consider working from home like she is.

“If they had any inclination to working with computers, most definitely I would say that this is the way to go,” she says.

To learn more about Teleworks USA, including how to contact a Hub Manager, visit teleworksusa.com.

A partner in the Kentucky Career Center JobSight network of workforce centers, Northeast Kentucky Career Center JobSight provides Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) services in Carter, Elliott, and Lawrence counties under contract with the Eastern Kentucky Concentrated Employment Program, Inc. (EKCEP). Those services include programs for adults, dislocated workers, and for in-school and out-of-school youth who may need assistance honing skills such as résumé building or networking with local employers, or who need assistance being retrained or going to school.

EKCEP, a nonprofit workforce development agency headquartered in Hazard, Ky., serves the citizens of 23 Appalachian coalfield counties. The agency provides an array of workforce development services and operates the Kentucky Career Center JobSight network of workforce centers, which provide access to more than a dozen state and federal programs that offer employment and training assistance for jobseekers and employers all under one roof. Learn more about us at http://www.ekcep.org, http://www.jobsight.org and http://www.facebook.com/ekcep.