How To Become A Child Advocate: What It Is and Career Path

What is a child advocate and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

2 min read

Quoted expert

Debra Minsky-Kelly

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a child advocate. For example, did you know that they make an average of $18.21 an hour? That's $37,885 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 9% and produce 64,000 job opportunities across the U.S.

What general advice would you give to a child advocate?

Debra Minsky-Kelly

Director of Field Education / Clinical Assistant Professor of Social Work, Carthage College

I think there are two critical skills for social workers, whether they are first entering the workforce or seasoned professionals. These skills are humility and an appreciation for ambiguity in our work. A humble approach to our work empowers clients to become experts on their circumstances. Social workers are then positioned in a collaborative role to help clients use existing skills and resources to improve their situations. An appreciation for ambiguity is closely related to the idea of humility. It helps us to remember that practice situations we face in this field are often far more complicated than they appear on the surface. Thus, all social workers need to make a strong commitment to lifelong learning and ongoing consultation with colleagues to ensure that multiple perspectives are included as we work to solve complex problems.

ScoreChild AdvocateUS Average

Salary

3.0

Avg. Salary $37,885

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

10.0

Growth rate 9%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

9.3

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 1.51%

Asian 2.67%

Black or African American 13.37%

Hispanic or Latino 15.12%

Unknown 4.19%

White 63.14%

Gender

female 86.86%

male 13.14%

Age - 42

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 42

Stress level

10.0

Stress level is very high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.5

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

6.2

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a child advocate

Explore child advocate education requirements

Most common child advocate degrees

Bachelor's

65.4 %

Associate

15.2 %

Master's

11.5 %

Start to develop specific child advocate skills

Skills	Percentages
Social Work	16.48%
Safety Planning	10.88%
Crisis Intervention	9.29%
Mental Health	7.49%
Child Abuse	5.47%

Complete relevant child advocate training and internships

Accountants spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. New child advocates learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a child advocate based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real child advocate resumes.

Research child advocate duties and responsibilities

Offer immediate practical assistance to the family in obtaining Medicaid coverage, financial assistance or help with housing.
Assist patients in securing medical coverage by screening refer patients and coordinating the application process through successful approval.
Complete risk assessments and develop comprehensive intervention plans to address safety, communication, and problem solving abilities.

Prepare your child advocate resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your child advocate resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a child advocate resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable child advocate resume templates

Build a professional child advocate resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your child advocate resume.

Apply for child advocate jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a child advocate job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do child advocates rate their job?

-/5

5 stars

4 stars

3 stars

2 stars

1 star

Child advocate reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Dec 2019

Pros

Serving people, impacting change in communities, never boring

A zippia user wrote a review on Nov 2019

Pros

The vulnerable are cared for and protected

A zippia user wrote a review on Nov 2019

Cons

The accredited MSW should be sufficient to practice the specialized areas of social work. The Ridiculous testing after so much schooling is further decreasing our earning power. This is causing the averaged alumni with a MSW to work knowing they are just a few paychecks shy of seeking someone within our own profession for help. The LICENSE should be based on confirmation of school accreditation and graduation...not re-testing. Quite frankly, it's insulting to all MSW graduates! The excessive paperwork places Additional undue stress upon SW and should be trimmed as much as possible. This also applies to the Health Information Technology (HIT) selected by the company. The HIT should have the capabilities to process forms necessary for daily work, data collection, and. ease of access.

What is a child advocate and how to become one

What general advice would you give to a child advocate?

Child advocate career paths

Key steps to become a child advocate

Explore child advocate education requirements

Most common child advocate degrees

Start to develop specific child advocate skills

Complete relevant child advocate training and internships

Research child advocate duties and responsibilities

Prepare your child advocate resume

Choose from 10+ customizable child advocate resume templates

Apply for child advocate jobs

How did you land your first child advocate job

Average child advocate salary

How do child advocates rate their job?

Child advocate reviews