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

What is a community living specialist and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted expert

Donald Spears

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a community living specialist. For example, did you know that they make an average of $16.62 an hour? That's $34,560 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 12% and produce 52,400 job opportunities across the U.S.

What general advice would you give to a community living specialist?

Donald Spears

National Organization for Human Services Board Secretary, Professor of Human Services, National Organization for Human Services

The human services field is vital to society and is growing tremendously. Human service professionals will likely be presented with new challenges as the Baby Boomers continue to age, live longer, and remain active later than previous generations. Other pressing issues include the continuing national opioid epidemic, helping people with autism meet their potential, and supporting families as loved ones are diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia. There are other large-scale issues that are just as crucial, such as health care access and affordability, poverty, and social justice. Many people think of human services as being primarily face-to-face work with a client, which is often the case, but human service professionals also work on state and national levels, which is essential to creating a more fair and just society.

ScoreCommunity Living SpecialistUS Average

Salary

2.7

Avg. Salary $34,560

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

8.9

Growth rate 12%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

10.0

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 1.66%

Asian 6.44%

Black or African American 12.00%

Hispanic or Latino 16.29%

Unknown 4.71%

White 58.89%

Gender

female 74.12%

male 25.88%

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 living specialist

Explore community living specialist education requirements

Most common community living specialist degrees

Bachelor's

52.7 %

Associate

18.5 %

High School Diploma

13.1 %

Start to develop specific community living specialist skills

Skills	Percentages
Developmental Disabilities	15.34%
Autism	10.54%
Direct Support	10.18%
Community Resources	8.30%
Medical Care	7.18%

Complete relevant community living specialist training and internships

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

Research community living specialist duties and responsibilities

Manage situations through effective oral communication skills and PMT restraint.
Perform ADL functions where necessary including cooking, cleaning, laundry, banking, transporting or shopping.
Perform record notation ans other require documentation, activities of daily living (ADL) management and supervision.
Assist individuals in the participation of leisure-time activities and recreation as appropriate including anything outline in the individuals IP.

Prepare your community living specialist resume

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

Build a professional community living specialist 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 living specialist resume.

Apply for community living specialist jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a community living specialist 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 community living specialists rate their job?

-/5

5 stars

4 stars

3 stars

2 stars

1 star

Community living specialist reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Dec 2019

Pros

To help most people out of their respective concern.

A zippia user wrote a review on Nov 2019

Cons

The scheduling can change at anytime. There are always shortage of workers to cover shifts especially overnight shifts. You can get stuck on a shift any given day. The people you work with has more issues than the people you are hired for to take care of. They can be lazy!!!