What does a community service worker do?
Community service workers provide physical, personal, emotional, political, mental, and social services to disadvantaged individuals and groups. The workers help improve the lives of their clients and assist communities. Typically, they work in organizations focusing on community care and outreach. They offer individual counseling and care, community assessments, and engagement in community organizations. Also, they connect their clients to local services and develop personal improvement service plans.
Community service worker responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real community service worker resumes:
- 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.
Community service worker skills and personality traits
We calculated that 18% of Community Service Workers are proficient in Rehabilitation, Nursing Home, and Home Health. They’re also known for soft skills such as Compassion, Time-management skills, and Communication skills.
We break down the percentage of Community Service Workers that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Rehabilitation, 18%
Provided direct patient care services in this world-renowned brain injury therapeutic and rehabilitation center, serving individuals with acquired brain injury.
- Nursing Home, 18%
Expedited backlog of over 1100 cases pending Medicare Optimization for Medicaid Nursing Home Care Unit.
- Home Health, 16%
Develop client care and monitor care provided by home health aide.
- Math, 15%
Served as a lead math tutor to underclassmen for two years.
- Community Resources, 4%
Provided Referral services for individuals to appropriate community resources by:.
- Behavior Management, 4%
Attended professional training in the areas of diagnostic assessments, person-centered planning, and behavior management.
Common skills that a community service worker uses to do their job include "rehabilitation," "nursing home," and "home health." You can find details on the most important community service worker responsibilities below.
Compassion. To carry out their duties, the most important skill for a community service worker to have is compassion. Their role and responsibilities require that "social and human service assistants often work with people who are in stressful and difficult situations." Community service workers often use compassion in their day-to-day job, as shown by this real resume: "care of dd clients to assist in daily independent living accurate logging and organizational skills great attention to detail caring & compassionate"
Time-management skills. Another soft skill that's essential for fulfilling community service worker duties is time-management skills. The role rewards competence in this skill because "social and human service assistants often work with many clients." According to a community service worker resume, here's how community service workers can utilize time-management skills in their job responsibilities: "delivered and picked up on time parcels while providing outstanding customer service. "
Communication skills. Another skill that relates to the job responsibilities of community service workers is communication skills. This skill is critical to many everyday community service worker duties, as "social and human service assistants talk with clients about the challenges in their lives and assist them in getting help." This example from a resume shows how this skill is used: "assist with front desk registration as needed.maintain communication within community organizations; attend community based organization and state meetings"
Organizational skills. A big part of what community service workers do relies on "organizational skills." You can see how essential it is to community service worker responsibilities because "social and human service assistants must often complete lots of paperwork and work with many different clients." Here's an example of how this skill is used from a resume that represents typical community service worker tasks: "demonstrated exceptional organizational abilities through participation in care plans and interdisciplinary meetings with clinical team. "
Interpersonal skills. A commonly-found skill in community service worker job descriptions, "interpersonal skills" is essential to what community service workers do. Community service worker responsibilities rely on this skill because "social and human service assistants must make their clients feel comfortable discussing sensitive issues." You can also see how community service worker duties rely on interpersonal skills in this resume example: "attend to mentally incompetent adults, including: activity planning; interpersonal relationships; conflict resolution; meal preparation and"
Problem-solving skills. Another skill commonly found on community service worker job descriptions is "problem-solving skills." It can come up quite often in community service worker duties, since "social and human service assistants help clients find solutions to their problems." Here's an example from a resume of how this skill fits into day-to-day community service worker responsibilities: "investigate reports of child abuse and neglect, solution focused approach in guiding families to resources and monitoring progress. "
The three companies that hire the most community service workers are:
- Catholic Health Care System7 community service workers jobs
- Apis4 community service workers jobs
- Aramark3 community service workers jobs
Choose from 10+ customizable community service worker resume templates
Build a professional community service worker resume in minutes. Our AI resume writing assistant will guide you through every step of the process, and you can choose from 10+ resume templates to create your community service worker resume.
Compare different community service workers
Community service worker vs. Supervisor of communications
The communications supervisor handles all internal and external communications of the company. This supervisor focuses on ensuring all communications are disseminated efficiently throughout the company. The communications supervisor also works on maintaining the image of the company through press releases, correspondence with customers, attractive quotations and witty lines for advertising, and many more. Through the communications supervisor, the company develops its voice to the public and establishes its face in the market.
These skill sets are where the common ground ends though. The responsibilities of a community service worker are more likely to require skills like "rehabilitation," "nursing home," "home health," and "math." On the other hand, a job as a supervisor of communications requires skills like "patients," "powerpoint," "cpr," and "cad." As you can see, what employees do in each career varies considerably.
Supervisors of communications tend to make the most money working in the manufacturing industry, where they earn an average salary of $82,448. In contrast, community service workers make the biggest average salary, $40,029, in the government industry.supervisors of communications tend to reach similar levels of education than community service workers. In fact, supervisors of communications are 2.0% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.2% less likely to have a Doctoral Degree.Community service worker vs. Social worker
Social workers help their clients get through problems that they may be facing. Social workers help identify individuals or groups of people, usually families, who may need assistance, generally through a set of pre-determined criteria. They then determine the best ways to help their clients by interviewing them, getting to know them, and understanding the context of their lives. They create plans that will help their clients become better, such as integrating into a new environment, assisting them in their needs, or even rescuing them from their current place. Social workers have good interpersonal skills and communication skills.
While some skills are similar in these professions, other skills aren't so similar. For example, resumes show us that community service worker responsibilities requires skills like "math," "working independently," "csw," and "behavior management." But a social worker might use other skills in their typical duties, such as, "social work," "patients," "patient care," and "msw."
Social workers earn a higher average salary than community service workers. But social workers earn the highest pay in the government industry, with an average salary of $56,132. Additionally, community service workers earn the highest salaries in the government with average pay of $40,029 annually.Average education levels between the two professions vary. Social workers tend to reach higher levels of education than community service workers. In fact, they're 26.2% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.2% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.What technology do you think will become more important and prevalent for community service workers in the next 3-5 years?
Virginia Schwindt
MSW Field Director/Associate Professor, Union University
Community service worker vs. Service counselor
Service counselors provide guidance to couples, individuals, groups, and families who are going through issues that influence their well-being and mental health. They comprehensively approach their clients by utilizing a "wellness" model that focuses on and motivate the client's potentials. Their duties include inspiring clients to talk about their emotions and experiences, helping them determine their action plans and goals, as well as designing therapeutic methods. Also, they may refer their clients to other services or psychologists.
There are many key differences between these two careers, including some of the skills required to perform responsibilities within each role. For example, a community service worker is likely to be skilled in "nursing home," "home health," "math," and "working independently," while a typical service counselor is skilled in "social work," "patients," "customer service," and "aaa."
Service counselors make a very good living in the education industry with an average annual salary of $43,030. On the other hand, community service workers are paid the highest salary in the government industry, with average annual pay of $40,029.Most service counselors achieve a higher degree level compared to community service workers. For example, they're 7.9% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 1.6% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Community service worker vs. Service aide
A family service aide is an individual social worker who addresses the behavior of clients as well as utilizes crisis intervention techniques in the effort to assist with symptom management and stabilization. Family service aides are required to monitor the progress of clients and prepare reports in preparation for court cases if needed. They must participate in community outreach events to recruit volunteers and promote awareness of child abuse. Family service aides must also conduct detailed investigations into allegations of child abuse and neglect.
Types of community service worker
Updated January 8, 2025
