How to hire a community development assistant

How to hire a community development assistant, step by step

Here's a step-by-step community development assistant hiring guide:

• Step 1: Identify your hiring needs
• Step 2: Create an ideal candidate profile
• Step 3: Make a budget
• Step 4: Write a community development assistant job description
• Step 5: Post your job
• Step 6: Interview candidates
• Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new community development assistant
• Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

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1. Identify your hiring needs

   First, determine the employments status of the community development assistant you need to hire. Certain community development assistant roles might require a full-time employee, whereas others can be done by part-time workers or contractors.

   Determine employee vs contractor status

   Is the person you're thinking of hiring a US citizen or green card holder?

   Yes

   No

   You should also consider the ideal background you'd like them a community development assistant to have before you start to hire. For example, what industry or field would you like them to have experience in, what level of seniority or education does the job require, and how much it'll cost to hire a community development assistant that fits the bill.

   Here's a comparison of community development assistant salaries for various roles:

   Type of Community Development Assistant	Description	Hourly rate
   Community Development Assistant	Social and human service assistants provide client services, including support for families, in a wide variety of fields, such as psychology, rehabilitation, and social work. They assist other workers, such as social workers, and they help clients find benefits or community services.	$8-24
   Community Organizer	Community organizers assist communities in clarifying and determining their problems, articulating their needs, and exploring resolution strategies. The organizers choose and apply strategies related to the intervention... Show more	$15-31
   Development Coordinator	A development coordinator is responsible for planning various programs and events for an organization or company. They primarily focus on securing funding by holding fundraising events, devising programs to increase brand awareness, and even coming up with various campaigns supporting a cause... Show more	$17-35

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common skills:

   • Website Content
   • Donor Database
   • Community Outreach
   • Press Releases
   • Economic Development
   • Community Resources
   • Promotional Materials
   • Community Events
   • Twitter
   • Facebook
   • Event Planning
   • Alumni Events
   • CDBG
   • Travel Arrangements

   Check all skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Manage the schools social networking sites including facebook, twitter and MySpace.
   • Attend various workshops with affiliate NGOs.
   • Create surveys in English and Thai to help define student issues and needs.
   • Design and configure user database to store environment, message set and audit details in the DB2 tables.
   • Maintained/Update biographic and demographic alumni information.
   • Maintained/Update biographic and demographic alumni information.

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in your community development assistant job description is a great way to entice the best and brightest candidates. A community development assistant salary can vary based on several factors:

   • Location. For example, community development assistants' average salary in alabama is 56% less than in washington.
   • Seniority. Entry-level community development assistants earn 66% less than senior-level community development assistants.
   • Certifications. A community development assistant with a few certifications under their belt will likely demand a higher salary.
   • Company. Working for a prestigious company or an exciting start-up can make a huge difference in a community development assistant's salary.

   Average community development assistant salary

   $14.37hourly

   $29,897 yearly

   ---

   Entry-level community development assistant salary

   $17,000 yearly salary

   Updated December 5, 2025

4. Writing a community development assistant job description

   A good community development assistant job description should include a few things:

   • Summary of the role
   • List of responsibilities
   • Required skills and experience

   Including a salary range and the first name of the hiring manager is also appreciated by candidates. Here's an example of a community development assistant job description:

   Community development assistant job description example

   Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is seeking a Community Assistant II for the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences. Reporting to the Program Associate I of the Camden County EFNEP project, the Community Assistant (CA) teaches research-based, behaviorally focused nutrition classes to both adult and youth limited-resource participants in Camden County. The goal of the education provided is to help program participants improve their food security, dietary quality, physical activity, and food safety behaviors. The Community Assistant supports volunteers and program staff who assist in the delivery of educational outreach. The successful candidate must maintain a professional demeanor and confidentiality at all times.
   Among the key duties of this position are the following:
   
   * Responsible for conducting all class sessions for the duration contracted with the agency's site supervisor.
   * Completes and collects all of the personal demographic and food intake/behavioral information needed from each participant enrolled in the program.
   * Educates youth and adults using pre-approved nutrition curriculum.
   * Encourages youth to share what they have learned with family members.
   * Works with people from varied age groups and cultures.
   * Assists the supervisor in organizing groups consisting of 4 to 15 qualifying adult participants to meet at least 8 times for a period of at least 4 weeks for the purpose of learning about food, its safe preparation, nutrition, and physical activity.
   * Assists the supervisor in organizing youth groups for the same purposes as stated above, and helping youth apply the information to themselves and their families.
   * Maintains accurate records of hours worked and submits them to the supervisor in a timely manner as instructed.
   * Keeps an accurate account of expenses incurred while carrying out the duties of the program; and regularly submitting them to the supervisor.
   * Collects required information on each new participant or family when enrolled and at the time of graduation and maintains a log of work time and work-related activities of the duties performed.
   * Informs individuals, groups, and agencies of the objectives of the program as they relate to the Cooperative Extension philosophy of peer education and helping people to help themselves.
   * Refers program participants to other Cooperative Extension programs, federal food assistance programs, nutrition programs, and social services, based on the participant's eligibility.
   * Reports to the supervisor any participant's specific needs or problems and directs them to the appropriate agency for help.
   * Maintains contact with community agency/organization personnel who can provide access to preformed groups to provide group teaching.

   Copy this example

   

5. Post your job

   To find community development assistants for your business, try out a few different recruiting strategies:

   • Consider internal talent. One of the most important talent pools for any company is its current employees.
   • Ask for referrals. Reach out to friends, family members, and your current work to ask if they know any community development assistants they would recommend.
   • Recruit at local colleges. Attend job fairs at local colleges to recruit entry-level community development assistants with the right educational background.
   • Social media platforms. LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter have more than 3.5 billion users, and they're a great place for company branding and reaching potential job candidates.

   Post your job online:

   • Post your community development assistant job on Zippia to find and recruit community development assistant candidates who meet your exact specifications.
   • Use field-specific websites.
   • Post a job on free websites.

6. Interview candidates

   Your first interview with community development assistant candidates should focus on their interest in the role and background experience. As the hiring process goes on, you can learn more about how they'd fit into the company culture in later rounds of interviews.

   Remember to include a few questions that allow candidates to expand on their strengths in their own words. Asking about their unique skills might reveal things you'd miss otherwise. At this point, good candidates can move on to the technical interview.

   The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.

7. Send a job offer and onboard your new community development assistant

   Once you've decided on a perfect community development assistant candidate, it's time to write an offer letter. In addition to salary, it should include benefits and perks available to the employee. Qualified candidates may be considered for other positions, so make sure your offer is competitive. Candidates may wish to negotiate. Once you've settled on the details, formalize your agreement with a contract.

   It's also good etiquette to follow up with applicants who don't get the job by sending them an email letting them know that the position has been filled.

   Once that's done, you can draft an onboarding schedule for the new community development assistant. Human Resources should complete Employee Action Forms and ensure that onboarding paperwork is completed, including I-9s, benefits enrollment, federal and state tax forms, etc. They should also ensure that new employee files are created for internal recordkeeping.

8. Go through the hiring process checklist

   • Determine employee type (full-time, part-time, contractor, etc.)
   • Submit a job requisition form to the HR department
   • Define job responsibilities and requirements
   • Establish budget and timeline
   • Determine hiring decision makers for the role
   • Write job description
   • Post job on job boards, company website, etc.
   • Promote the job internally
   • Process applications through applicant tracking system
   • Review resumes and cover letters
   • Shortlist candidates for screening
   • Hold phone/virtual interview screening with first round of candidates
   • Conduct in-person interviews with top candidates from first round
   • Score candidates based on weighted criteria (e.g., experience, education, background, cultural fit, skill set, etc.)
   • Conduct background checks on top candidates
   • Check references of top candidates
   • Consult with HR and hiring decision makers on job offer specifics
   • Extend offer to top candidate(s)
   • Receive formal job offer acceptance and signed employment contract
   • Inform other candidates that the position has been filled
   • Set and communicate onboarding schedule to new hire(s)
   • Complete new hire paperwork (i9, benefits enrollment, tax forms, etc.)

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