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

What is a community advocate and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted expert

Dr. Tommy Casarez Ph.D.

A community advocate serves as the voice of the community. They advocate for change within their local communities, aiming to resolve issues like poor access to social services, environmental pollution, lack of accessibility, increased crime rates, and other social issues for the betterment of the entire community.

The job of a community advocate revolves around collaborating with the local population to determine the needs that need to be addressed in the community. They then create administrative solutions and propose them to the people in power, as well as communicate these solutions to the rest of the population. Community advocates may also provide counseling and participate in programs like soup kitchens, food drives, and anti-drug initiatives.

One can become a community advocate with almost any background as long as one has a genuine desire for making a change in the community. Furthermore, one needs to have good communication and collaboration skills to ensure that they understand what the community needs.

Community advocates earn around $32,000 a year. However, there are some advocates who do this on a completely voluntary basis and earn no income from it.

What general advice would you give to a community advocate?

Dr. Tommy Casarez Ph.D.

Dr., Assistant Professor of Historical and Systematic Theology, Vanguard University

Opportunities come in many different shapes and sizes, but they are still out there. Whether you are seeking to land a job in education or the non-profit sector, you will need to familiarize yourself and get used to all things digital, for the sake of communicating effectively. The younger your student or service partner's mindset, the more digitally savvy you will need to be, especially in the classroom and in the non-profit world.

ScoreCommunity AdvocateUS Average

Salary

2.8

Avg. Salary $35,900

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

8.9

Growth rate 12%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

10.0

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 2.17%

Asian 5.93%

Black or African American 12.41%

Hispanic or Latino 24.64%

Unknown 5.18%

White 49.66%

Gender

female 74.17%

male 25.83%

Age - 43

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 - 43

Stress level

8.9

Stress level is very high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.1

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

6.2

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a community advocate

Explore community advocate education requirements

Most common community advocate degrees

Bachelor's

62.4 %

Master's

13.2 %

Associate

12.7 %

Start to develop specific community advocate skills

Skills	Percentages
Community Resources	11.78%
Community Outreach	9.33%
Crisis Intervention	8.85%
Safety Planning	6.54%
Social Work	6.25%

Complete relevant community advocate training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New community 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 community advocate based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real community advocate resumes.

Research community advocate duties and responsibilities

Manage social media communication including Facebook, Pinterest, and blog.
Provide ongoing case management and resource coordinator for individuals with special needs or developmental delays receiving DDA funding.
Provide services to WIC clients to promote establish goals and to reinforce positive results.
Assist the families with applying for Medicaid, food assistance, FIP, WIC, low income housing etc.

Prepare your community advocate resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your community 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 community 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 community advocate resume templates

Build a professional community 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 community advocate resume.