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Adoption specialist skills for your resume and career

Updated January 8, 2025
2 min read
Quoted experts
Emily McCave PhD, MSW, LCSW,
Dr. Thomas Dearden Ph.D.
Below we've compiled a list of the most critical adoption specialist skills. We ranked the top skills for adoption specialists based on the percentage of resumes they appeared on. For example, 14.7% of adoption specialist resumes contained foster care as a skill. Continue reading to find out what skills an adoption specialist needs to be successful in the workplace.

15 adoption specialist skills for your resume and career

1. Foster Care

Here's how adoption specialists use foster care:
  • Facilitated adoption preparation for children in foster care.
  • Prepared and trained modules required for adoption/foster care.

2. Social Work

Here's how adoption specialists use social work:
  • Provided social work and other supportive services to the adoption family social worker, and Director of Adoption Services.
  • Direct social work services to include counseling, referrals, supportive resources, and referrals for adoption.

3. Adoption Process

Adoption process is the procedure by which a person or a couple assumes the parenting role of another individual, usually a child. The adoptive parents are different from the child's biological or birth parents. The adoption process transfers all the legal rights and responsibilities of a child to the adoptive parents from the biological parents.

Here's how adoption specialists use adoption process:
  • Possess the ability to effectively communicate with adoptive applicants in the adoption process.
  • Educated families on the adoption process and assisted in gathering necessary paperwork.

4. Mental Health

Mental health is the state of wellbeing in which an individual can cope with the regular stresses and tensions of life, and can work productively without having any emotional or psychological breakdown. Mental health is essential for a person of any age and helps them make the right decisions in their life.

Here's how adoption specialists use mental health:
  • Participated in multidisciplinary teams and meetings, for example child protection, mental health, Adoption Review Committees and court hearings.
  • Experience dealing with various issues, including mental health, poverty, substance abuse, physical abuse, child care.

5. Child Welfare System

Here's how adoption specialists use child welfare system:
  • Contribute to building families by assessing applicants and matching them with children through the child welfare system.
  • Provided a continuum of case management services on all levels of the child welfare system designed to achieve permanency for children.

6. Social Services

Here's how adoption specialists use social services:
  • Recruited and provided social services for over 30 children in need of placement with resource families.
  • Provide and coordinate the delivery of social services for children with the goal of adoption.

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7. PET

Here's how adoption specialists use pet:
  • VOLUNTEER EXPERIENCE Arizona Animal Welfare - Provided counseling/education to prospective pet parents, Participated in Dog handling/walking, rescue/shelter activities.
  • Advocated for responsible pet ownership through community outreach.

8. Phone Calls

Phone calls are a wireless or wired connection made over a telephone or a mobile phone between two people. Two parties are involved in a phone call, the caller and the receiver. A caller dials the number of the one he wants to call, and the recipient hears a bell or a tune to which he picks up the call. The call establishes a connection between them through which they can communicate. The voice is converted into signals and is transmitted through wired or wireless technology.

Here's how adoption specialists use phone calls:
  • Monitored families through home visits, school visits, phone calls to providers and discussion with clients on individual basis.
  • Check and clear voice message, promptly answering, returning phone calls and documenting calls on phone log.

9. Support Services

Support services are services that support the organization internally and are usually non-revenue generating. Examples include, IT, admin, HR, etc.

Here's how adoption specialists use support services:
  • Conducted family need assessments, developed alternatives, established social connections and provided concrete support services counseling for families.
  • Provided ongoing support services to adoptive families and their children through resource referral, counseling support, and regular visitation.

10. Court Hearings

Here's how adoption specialists use court hearings:
  • Attend Team Decision Making Meeting, Child Family Team meeting and court hearings in order to support resources families.
  • Attend all assigned court hearings, i.e., post termination reviews, OTR's and like.

11. Kids

Here's how adoption specialists use kids:
  • Created and managed blog post for children on SC Seedlings and AdoptUS Kids websites.
  • Conducted home assessments on foster/adoptive families with CPS and Covenant Kids, Inc.

12. Compassion

Here's how adoption specialists use compassion:
  • Developed deep trust and credibility through empathy, integrity, compassion and consistently providing sound advice and helpful support.
  • Interact with all animals with compassion and concern for their well-being.

13. Family Assessments

Here's how adoption specialists use family assessments:
  • Assisted prospective adoptive families by conducting home and family assessments, documentation of criminal background check and referrals.
  • Completed written Adoption Family Assessments, Child Adoption Assessments, and Quarterly Reports according to BCAL standards.

14. Community Resources

Community resources are a set of resources that are used in the day to day life of people which improves their lifestyle in some way. People, sites or houses, and population assistance can come under the services offered by community resources.

Here's how adoption specialists use community resources:
  • Developed linkages with community resources in order to service adoptive families
  • Collaborated with county case workers and community resources.

15. Child Abuse

When a child who is under 18 is mistreated by an adult, it is considered child abuse. There are many forms of intentional harm and mistreatment for example physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, medical abuse, and neglect in providing adequate basic life necessities.

Here's how adoption specialists use child abuse:
  • Investigated child abuse/neglect referrals (after hours/holidays).
  • Collected and analyzed data as well as reported on emerging trends directly related to child abuse and child neglect cases.
top-skills

What skills help Adoption Specialists find jobs?

Tell us what job you are looking for, we’ll show you what skills employers want.

What adoption specialist skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?

Emily McCave PhD, MSW, LCSW

Professor of Social Work, Website

The need for social workers is high, particularly after the pandemic. A shortage of social workers means that there's an increasing demand in the field. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics social work jobs are expected to increase 13% between 2020 and 2030.

What type of skills will young adoption specialists need?

Dr. Thomas Dearden Ph.D.Dr. Thomas Dearden Ph.D. LinkedIn profile

Assistant Professor of Sociology, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Indeed, the way we work is changing. The skills that young graduates will need are diverse. Transferable skills and soft skills will certainly be marketable. These include traditional crafts such as communication, but I also think the world expects more empathy from its employees. Young graduates with an understanding of racism, sexism, and environmental responsibility will become increasingly important.

What soft skills should all adoption specialists possess?

Kacie Blalock Ph.D.

Associate Professor; Director, Master of Counseling, Louisiana State University at Shreveport

Soft skills that are essential for counselors include emotional intelligence, empathy, multicultural competency, interpersonal abilities, and authenticity.

What hard/technical skills are most important for adoption specialists?

Kacie Blalock Ph.D.

Associate Professor; Director, Master of Counseling, Louisiana State University at Shreveport

It is important that counselors are able to effectively take notes and summarize progress, interpret assessments, memorize and recall information, and keep clear yet concise records.
Do you want to know more?
Read more about what experts have to say about adoption specialist

List of adoption specialist skills to add to your resume

Adoption specialist skills

The most important skills for an adoption specialist resume and required skills for an adoption specialist to have include:

  • Foster Care
  • Social Work
  • Adoption Process
  • Mental Health
  • Child Welfare System
  • Social Services
  • PET
  • Phone Calls
  • Support Services
  • Court Hearings
  • Kids
  • Compassion
  • Family Assessments
  • Community Resources
  • Child Abuse
  • Foster Children
  • Court Proceedings
  • Adoption Plan
  • Child Development
  • Adoptive Homes
  • Crisis Intervention
  • Court Reports
  • Community Agencies
  • Mapp
  • Necessary Paperwork
  • Child Assessments
  • Child Studies
  • Medical Care
  • Post-Adoption Services
  • DHS
  • Birth Parents
  • Mare
  • DCFS
  • Adoptive Families
  • Post-Placement Supervision
  • Child Protective
  • Parental Rights
  • Biological Parents
  • Adoption Cases
  • Background Checks
  • Biological Families
  • Community Outreach
  • CPS
  • Birth Families
  • Family Court
  • Crisis Management
  • International Adoption
  • Shelter Animals
  • Juvenile Court

Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Research Team
Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.

Updated January 8, 2025

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