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

What is a community service worker and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted expert

Debra Minsky-Kelly

What do community service workers actually do? This can be addressed by analyzing the role, duties, and needs of this role. Also known as human service workers, community service workers work in various disciplines including psychiatry, therapy, and social work. They are responsible for delivering treatments, support, and guidance to those facing problems like substance abuse, relationships with people, and rehabilitation.

Many of the roles of a community service worker are done in an administrative setting, and prospective employers may include half-way houses, state, and city government resettlement services, and group homes. They typically serve pregnant teens, homeless people, and the elderly. They are there to fulfill one purpose--to better the lives of the community staff.

Community service workers must hold a minimum of bachelor's degree, certificate, or an associate's degree that focuses on human services or related fields. Most of the programs provide lessons in crisis intervention, culture sensitivity human practice, and counseling theories and techniques. The average annual salary for this job is around $56,750.

What general advice would you give to a community service worker?

Debra Minsky-Kelly

Director of Field Education / Clinical Assistant Professor of Social Work, Carthage College

I think there are two critical skills for social workers, whether they are first entering the workforce or seasoned professionals. These skills are humility and an appreciation for ambiguity in our work. A humble approach to our work empowers clients to become experts on their circumstances. Social workers are then positioned in a collaborative role to help clients use existing skills and resources to improve their situations. An appreciation for ambiguity is closely related to the idea of humility. It helps us to remember that practice situations we face in this field are often far more complicated than they appear on the surface. Thus, all social workers need to make a strong commitment to lifelong learning and ongoing consultation with colleagues to ensure that multiple perspectives are included as we work to solve complex problems.

ScoreCommunity Service WorkerUS Average

Salary

2.8

Avg. Salary $35,271

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

8.9

Growth rate 12%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

10.0

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 2.14%

Asian 6.28%

Black or African American 11.24%

Hispanic or Latino 21.82%

Unknown 5.16%

White 53.36%

Gender

female 58.08%

male 41.92%

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 service worker

Explore community service worker education requirements

Most common community service worker degrees

Bachelor's

54.9 %

Associate

16.8 %

High School Diploma

14.1 %

Start to develop specific community service worker skills

Skills	Percentages
Rehabilitation	18.33%
Nursing Home	18.05%
Home Health	16.07%
Math	14.90%
Community Resources	3.80%

Complete relevant community service worker training and internships

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

Research community service worker duties and responsibilities

Manage the MSW staff and coordinate all social service and select patient service activities.
Recognize risk factors quickly, collaborate with interdisciplinary team, nurture positive relationships with patients through consistency and modeling healthy boundaries.
Facilitate monthly community meetings to ascertain interests of community members; provide PowerPoint presentations, showing progress of various initiatives.

Prepare your community service worker resume

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

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