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Child welfare worker skills for your resume and career

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted experts

Dr. Florence DiGennaro Reed Ph.D.,

Dr. Dianna Cooper

Below we've compiled a list of the most critical child welfare worker skills. We ranked the top skills for child welfare workers based on the percentage of resumes they appeared on. For example, 18.5% of child welfare worker resumes contained social work as a skill. Continue reading to find out what skills a child welfare worker needs to be successful in the workplace.

15 child welfare worker skills for your resume and career

2. 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 child welfare workers use community resources:

Worked collaboratively with families and community resources to ensure proper and effective services were being delivered to clients.
Referred customers to various appropriate community resources for additional services.

4. Mediation

Here's how child welfare workers use mediation:

Provided crisis intervention, mediation and counseling as needed and as ordered by the Court.
Provided counseling, case management, and mediation services to children, caretakers, and biological parents.

5. Law Enforcement

Law enforcement is the task of certain members of the community who work together to uphold the law by identifying, preventing, rehabilitating, or prosecuting others who break society's laws and norms. The phrase refers to the police, the judiciary, and the correctional system.

Here's how child welfare workers use law enforcement:

Maintained relationships with community service providers as well as law enforcement and court personnel.
Recommend the need for legal intervention and consult with law enforcement and court personnel, community resource workers and school staff.

6. Court Reports

Here's how child welfare workers use court reports:

Prepared written court reports and provided oral testimony at required court proceedings.
Provided court related services including expert testimony and court reports.

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7. Child Welfare System

Here's how child welfare workers use child welfare system:

Supervised second year graduate students in child welfare system at CPS in San Francisco.
Provided case management, advocacy and support for children and families in the California child welfare system.

8. Crisis Intervention

Here's how child welfare workers use crisis intervention:

Strengthened families by performing crisis intervention, complex psychological assessments, investigations, interviews, and brief counseling.
Prevent and manage challenging behavior with Therapeutic Crisis Intervention.

9. Risk Assessments

The process of analyzing and identifying the acts or events that have the potential to negatively affect an individual, asset, or business is called risk assessment. Risk assessments are important because they form an integral part of an organization as well as occupational safety plans

Here's how child welfare workers use risk assessments:

Complete need and risk assessments on cases and determine eligibility for services and level of care.
Performed risk assessments with clients.

10. Foster Care

Here's how child welfare workers use foster care:

Investigate and make recommendations concerning family situations involving neglect or child abuse; investigate allegations of abuse in foster care.
Conducted home studies to determine the family eligibility for adoption or foster care and performed follow-up family assessments and interventions.

11. Court Proceedings

Here's how child welfare workers use court proceedings:

Drafted court summaries for all litigated cases and attend all associated court proceedings.
Assisted in the development of all reports for administrative case reviews, court proceedings and school staffing.

12. Child Safety

Here's how child welfare workers use child safety:

Assessed child safety in accordance to DCFS standards and Service Plan goals.
Completed assessments of child safety, risk, and needs.

13. 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 child welfare workers use support services:

Provided support services for foster parents, relative placements, and daycares.
Facilitated group therapy, counseled patients based on cognitive behavioral theory, and coordinated appropriate continuing care and support services.

14. Court Testimony

Here's how child welfare workers use court testimony:

Maintained accurate and timely documentation and provided court testimony, both verbal and written.
Court-ordered home investigations and recommendations, court testimony and client advocacy.

15. Management Services

Management services may refer to a number of supervisory duties depending on the type of work. A manager may be required to oversee a team of employees complete a series of tasks or monitor the quality of a product. Overall, any form of management involves supervising a worksite, whether this is a restaurant, grocery store, or manufacturing plant.

Here's how child welfare workers use management services:

Provide case management services through a family-centered approach to assigned families to assist them in overcoming concerns related to child maltreatment.
Provided Juvenile Court case management services.

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What skills help Child Welfare Workers find jobs?

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

What skills stand out on child welfare worker resumes?

Dr. Florence DiGennaro Reed Ph.D.

Associate Professor and Chairperson, Director of the Performance Management Laboratory, University of Kansas

In my experience, employers appreciate real-world experience where students/recent graduates can apply the knowledge they learned in their courses to actual work settings. Thus, graduates who have had service-learning practicum courses, internships, or other relevant experiences have resumes that tend to stand out to future employers.

What soft skills should all child welfare workers possess?

Dr. Dianna Cooper

Associate Professor, Campbellsville University

The "change theory" used in social work practice follows several steps, including engaging, assessing, planning, intervening, evaluating, terminating, and following up. Soft skills are most likely to occur in engagement, intervention, and termination. Social workers are trained to "start wherever the client is," understanding that clients can be individuals, families, groups, communities, or organizations. Social workers are trained to respect the client as the expert in their needs, honor self-determination, use a strengths-based approach, and respect difference while using inclusion. The training turns into soft skills such as being empathetic, warm, genuine, and respectful. Social workers also develop skills in knowing when to listen and when to nudge the client toward action. Social workers are trained to intervene and, when change is completed, to terminate. Helping clients know when to end services also requires soft skills of talking about hard topics, seeing a brighter future and setting goals, recognizing when change is happening, and saying goodbye respectfully.

What hard/technical skills are most important for child welfare workers?

Dr. Dianna Cooper

Associate Professor, Campbellsville University

Hard or technical skills are most likely to occur in the stages of assessing, planning, intervening, and evaluating change theory. Social workers are trained to gather lots of information and then analyze strengths and needs. Social workers present their assessments to clients and work together to create goals and the steps that reach goals when executed. The process involves using the client's vision of what "better" looks like. Social workers then use evidence-based techniques to move the client toward the goal and define measures to know when the goal is met. The technical skills used in this process include analyzing many types of information repeatedly, knowing what resources exist and how to refer, knowing how to design effective goals and steps to achieve goals, researching current evidence-based practices, defining and measuring progress, and setting limits and timeframes.

What child welfare worker skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?

Lillian Wichinsky Ph.D.

Associate Dean, University of Nevada - Reno

The need for social workers with expertise in mental health care, school-based social work, health and substance misuse are particularly important. Sixty percent of mental health care in the US is provided by social workers and the need is growing.

What type of skills will young child welfare workers need?

M Elizabeth Bowman Ph.D.

Instructor, Gallaudet University

Social work graduates will need an ongoing understanding of cultural competence, explicitly incorporating a global perspective of the social work field and systems of oppression domestically and internationally. Students should be prepared by emphasizing cultural competency training within BSW and MSW programs, with exposure to varying cultures through the international school of social work partnerships. Additionally, social workers are expected to be aware of and competent in using technology, both for record-keeping and internal agency process, and for supporting case management (i.e., internet searches for resources, research for evidence-based practice, technology education, and support of clients).

Do you want to know more?

List of child welfare worker skills to add to your resume

The most important skills for a child welfare worker resume and required skills for a child welfare worker to have include:

Social Work
Community Resources
Social Services
Mediation
Law Enforcement
Court Reports
Child Welfare System
Crisis Intervention
Risk Assessments
Foster Care
Court Proceedings
Child Safety
Support Services
Court Testimony

Management Services
Mental Health
Substance Abuse
Protective Services
Court Hearings
Court Orders
Juvenile Court
Child Protective
Community Agencies
Domestic Violence
DCFS
Safety Assessments
Court System
Adoptions

Social Histories
Foster Children
Risk Factors
Transport Clients
Family Assessments
DHS
Family Therapy
Family Court
Worker II
Financial Assistance
CPS
IEP
Permanent Placement
ICW

Updated January 8, 2025

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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