Post job

Community liaison vs program assistant

The differences between community liaisons and program assistants can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 6-12 months to become both a community liaison and a program assistant. Additionally, a community liaison has an average salary of $39,899, which is higher than the $35,193 average annual salary of a program assistant.

The top three skills for a community liaison include patients, customer service and home health. The most important skills for a program assistant are patients, customer service, and data entry.

Community liaison vs program assistant overview

Community LiaisonProgram Assistant
Yearly salary$39,899$35,193
Hourly rate$19.18$16.92
Growth rate12%12%
Number of jobs30,43196,901
Job satisfaction-4
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 65%Bachelor's Degree, 62%
Average age4343
Years of experience1212

What does a community liaison do?

A community liaison is responsible for managing the communication between local institutions and community citizens. Community liaisons often coordinate with the community to talk about their needs and concerns, directing them to the organizations with plans on improving the people's lifestyles. They also assist in scheduling outreach meetings and fundraising activities to benefit the citizens, handling promotional events, representing an organization for human welfare to increase public awareness. A community liaison must have excellent communication and organizational skills, especially in solving community concerns and complaints.

What does a program assistant do?

Program assistants are usually entry-level or junior employees assigned to a department that handles a specific program in the organization. They assist the team they are assigned to in the implementation of the programs. They usually take care of administrative or clerical activities while also getting exposure to actual program management. Program assistants get trained to handle agendas from inception, to sourcing, to implementation, to evaluation. They may also handle documentary support for business cases or other presentation materials that the team may need for a specific part of the program management cycle.

Community liaison vs program assistant salary

Community liaisons and program assistants have different pay scales, as shown below.

Community LiaisonProgram Assistant
Average salary$39,899$35,193
Salary rangeBetween $29,000 And $54,000Between $27,000 And $45,000
Highest paying CityWashington, DCWashington, DC
Highest paying stateNorth DakotaConnecticut
Best paying companyBlackRockThe Aspen Institute
Best paying industryUtilitiesGovernment

Differences between community liaison and program assistant education

There are a few differences between a community liaison and a program assistant in terms of educational background:

Community LiaisonProgram Assistant
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 65%Bachelor's Degree, 62%
Most common majorBusinessBusiness
Most common collegeUniversity of Southern CaliforniaNorthwestern University

Community liaison vs program assistant demographics

Here are the differences between community liaisons' and program assistants' demographics:

Community LiaisonProgram Assistant
Average age4343
Gender ratioMale, 29.5% Female, 70.5%Male, 24.8% Female, 75.2%
Race ratioBlack or African American, 11.9% Unknown, 4.9% Hispanic or Latino, 20.9% Asian, 7.0% White, 53.5% American Indian and Alaska Native, 1.9%Black or African American, 13.8% Unknown, 5.2% Hispanic or Latino, 19.0% Asian, 6.7% White, 53.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 2.2%
LGBT Percentage11%11%

Differences between community liaison and program assistant duties and responsibilities

Community liaison example responsibilities.

  • Grow and manage existing relationships in assign territories with physicians, hospitals, skil nursing and rehabilitation facilities and assist livings.
  • Create a brochure with InDesign.
  • Create social media strategy: Facebook administrator, NYPL blog contributor
  • Provide nutrition, fitness and diabetes education to the community at large.
  • Construct online training courses in HTML using materials provide by instructional designers.
  • Design the web application screens for new systems using modeling tool like HTML.
  • Show more

Program assistant example responsibilities.

  • Lead classes in anatomy/physiology, medical terminology, transcription.
  • Manage oversight of budget/finance, personnel and continuous program improvement.
  • Assist in achieving and maintaining DoD certification and national accreditation where applicable.
  • Instruct students in C++ and Java programming, robot design and construction.
  • Introduce students to various computer pro- gramming languages (HTML, CSS, JavaScript).
  • Present information about RSVP to community organizations.
  • Show more

Community liaison vs program assistant skills

Common community liaison skills
  • Patients, 19%
  • Customer Service, 7%
  • Home Health, 6%
  • Community Outreach, 5%
  • Patient Referrals, 4%
  • Community Resources, 4%
Common program assistant skills
  • Patients, 12%
  • Customer Service, 9%
  • Data Entry, 8%
  • HR, 6%
  • Excellent Interpersonal, 6%
  • Data Collection, 4%

Browse community and social services jobs