What is a Community Support Specialist?

A community support specialist is responsible for supporting the citizens of a community by creating and providing programs for members that need public assistance. You may be involved with people with mental illnesses. Therefore, you are expected to maintain proper client and program participant records and ensure they are well-organized and contain current information. You are also responsible for evaluating all new member registration on the community site and accompanying clients to medical appointments and community activities when required to ensure their needs are properly met. Apart from this, you'll need to follow up on appointments, community activities, and forms to ensure they are completed correctly.

You need a bachelor's degree in psychology, social work, or criminal justice and at least one year of experience in a public assistance program to be considered for this job. You should have efficient organizational and time-management skills and excellent communication skills. Your average annual salary will be $29,746.

What Does a Community Support Specialist Do

There are certain skills that many community support specialists have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed organizational skills, time-management skills and communication skills.

Learn more about what a Community Support Specialist does

How To Become a Community Support Specialist

If you're interested in becoming a community support specialist, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 64.5% of community support specialists have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 13.4% of community support specialists have master's degrees. Even though most community support specialists have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.

Learn More About How To Become a Community Support Specialist
Top Community Support Specialist Jobs Near You

Community Support Specialist Career Paths

As you move along in your career, you may start taking on more responsibilities or notice that you've taken on a leadership role. Using our career map, a community support specialist can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as certified nursing assistant, progress to a title such as team leader and then eventually end up with the title case manager.

Community Support Specialist

Average Salary for a Community Support Specialist

Community Support Specialists in America make an average salary of $39,320 per year or $19 per hour. The top 10 percent makes over $56,000 per year, while the bottom 10 percent under $27,000 per year.
Average Community Support Specialist Salary
$39,320 Yearly
$18.90 hourly
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Roles and Types of Community Support Specialist

The role of a community support specialist includes a wide range of responsibilities. These responsibilities can vary based on an individual's specific job, company, or industry.Here are some general community support specialist responsibilities:

  • This qualified, specially trained team member will be available to provide crisis intervention, direct support, medication monitoring
  • Works with or on the behalf of patients in accordance with an individualized treatment plan, providing services to maximize an individual's immediate
  • Responsible for assessing the client's status including personal strengths, progress, problems

There are several types of community support specialist, including:

Residential Counselor

Role:

Residential counselors work in social care facilities such as homeless shelters, rehabilitation centers, retirement homes, and the like. Their main responsibility is to maintain the structure of the environment or program and oversee the residents' daily activities.

Residential counselors are typically expected to have a degree in psychology, social work, or a related field. They keep an eye on the mental and emotional state of the people under their care and make sure everyone lives by the rules of the facility. They give a hand with transportation and come up with fun and engaging activities for the residents to do while spending quality time together.

As a residential counselor, your responsibilities do not revolve around generating profit, and this is reflected in the median annual salary of the position, which is $29,592. This is a bit less than half of what the average yearly living expenses amount to across the U.S. Caring for each other apparently is not the most lucrative business. It is, however, very rewarding on a personal level.

  • Average Salary: $34,117
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree

Support Staff

Role:

Support Staff members work in several sectors, and their roles range from one company to the next. They are usually in charge of repetitive workplace duties that other workers are too preoccupied to manage. A support staff member may, for example, type or fax letters or papers written by their supervisors or input vital data into computers.

He/She may also help in sales or accounting. Support staff members are responsible for a wide range of roles and must be able to multitask. They might also be in charge of forwarding calls or relevant messages or taking minutes at meetings. Others may assist in delivering their company's incoming mail, while others may help arrange appointments.

They should have outstanding written and verbal communication skills, alongside a good work ethic. They must have an optimistic outlook about their work and an explicit knowledge of their company's policy and overall purpose.

On top of that, support staff members would almost definitely need basic programming skills. Since support personnel communicates with consumers regularly, they must retain a professional and courteous attitude. Sitting in this role, you are likely to earn as much as $95,000.

  • Average Salary: $31,772
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree

Service Worker

Role:

A service worker provides social services in different areas to people with varying needs. They might hold a license to provide assistance for clinical patients with mental health problems, or they might simply help people deal with everyday problems with training as a direct service social worker.

Housing emergencies, medical issues, financial problems, or other crisis situations are the areas where a service worker can typically help out without a license. They interview people to assess their situation, help with sorting out information, arrange support packages, give advice, and provide connections and referrals to other organizations.

You need patience, empathy, and great problem-solving skills to do this job well. You need to be organized and know your way around welfare policies, but perhaps most importantly, you need to be able to gain your clients' trust.

  • Average Salary: $30,045
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree
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States With The Most Community Support Specialist Jobs

Mouse over a state to see the number of active community support specialist jobs in each state. The darker areas on the map show where community support specialists earn the highest salaries across all 50 states.

Average Salary: Job Openings:

Number Of Community Support Specialist Jobs By State

RankStateNumber of JobsAverage Salary
1California6,602$53,647
2Texas2,437$45,768
3Florida2,372$37,091
4New York2,018$54,757
5Washington1,698$46,001
6Massachusetts1,621$40,439
7Illinois1,601$49,029
8Pennsylvania1,553$44,110
9Georgia1,379$34,615
10Virginia1,311$47,617
11North Carolina1,204$41,759
12Ohio1,184$37,389
13Missouri1,174$35,087
14Maryland1,074$52,429
15Minnesota1,008$38,722
16Michigan987$35,995
17New Jersey976$50,235
18Arizona959$35,901
19Colorado865$41,094
20Wisconsin815$46,225
21South Carolina806$35,457
22Indiana764$37,154
23Alabama735$33,294
24Tennessee697$32,508
25Arkansas599$38,220
26Oklahoma577$30,213
27Oregon574$45,124
28Iowa562$32,146
29Connecticut554$59,947
30Louisiana537$36,840
31Nebraska518$36,679
32Utah431$32,271
33Nevada423$44,470
34Kentucky399$33,203
35Kansas383$39,166
36New Hampshire379$35,779
37New Mexico327$33,063
38Maine249$40,709
39West Virginia239$35,619
40Hawaii226$52,334
41South Dakota210$31,762
42Mississippi207$37,417
43Idaho204$40,180
44Vermont198$38,329
45Rhode Island169$38,288
46Delaware164$47,209
47Montana159$35,597
48Alaska158$63,492
49North Dakota135$46,379
50Wyoming105$34,746

Community Support Specialist Education

Community Support Specialist Majors

Psychology
29.8 %
Social Work
15.4 %
Criminal Justice
10.0 %

Community Support Specialist Degrees

Bachelors

64.5 %

Masters

13.4 %

Associate

12.7 %

Top Colleges for Community Support Specialists

1. California State University - Long Beach

Long Beach, CA • Private

In-State Tuition

$6,798

Enrollment

31,503

2. SUNY at Binghamton

Vestal, NY • Private

In-State Tuition

$9,808

Enrollment

13,990

3. California State University - Dominguez Hills

Carson, CA • Private

In-State Tuition

$6,942

Enrollment

13,871

4. California State University - Fullerton

Fullerton, CA • Private

In-State Tuition

$6,886

Enrollment

34,637

5. University of Washington

Seattle, WA • Private

In-State Tuition

$11,207

Enrollment

30,905

6. University of South Florida

Tampa, FL • Private

In-State Tuition

$6,410

Enrollment

31,321

7. Howard University

Washington, DC • Private

In-State Tuition

$26,756

Enrollment

6,166

8. San Jose State University

San Jose, CA • Private

In-State Tuition

$7,796

Enrollment

27,125

9. Youngstown State University

Youngstown, OH • Private

In-State Tuition

$8,967

Enrollment

10,030

10. Minnesota State University - Mankato

Mankato, MN • Private

In-State Tuition

$8,184

Enrollment

11,675

Top Skills For a Community Support Specialist

The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 11.5% of community support specialists listed social work on their resume, but soft skills such as organizational skills and time-management skills are important as well.

Choose From 10+ Customizable Community Support Specialist Resume templates

Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Community Support Specialist templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Community Support Specialist resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.

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Community Support Specialist diversity

Community Support Specialist Gender Distribution

Female
Female
71%
Male
Male
29%

After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:

  • Among community support specialists, 71.2% of them are women, while 28.8% are men.

  • The most common race/ethnicity among community support specialists is White, which makes up 59.7% of all community support specialists.

  • The most common foreign language among community support specialists is Spanish at 71.5%.

Online Courses For Community Support Specialist That You May Like

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Best States For a Community Support Specialist

Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a community support specialist. The best states for people in this position are Alaska, Connecticut, New York, and California. Community support specialists make the most in Alaska with an average salary of $63,492. Whereas in Connecticut and New York, they would average $59,947 and $54,757, respectively. While community support specialists would only make an average of $53,647 in California, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.

1. District of Columbia

Total Community Support Specialist Jobs: 346
Highest 10% Earn:
$95,000
Location Quotient:
1.31

$61,538

Avg. Salary

View 346 Community Support Specialist Jobs In DC

2. Alaska

Total Community Support Specialist Jobs: 158
Highest 10% Earn:
$83,000
Location Quotient:
1.2

$63,492

Avg. Salary

View 158 Community Support Specialist Jobs In AK

3. Connecticut

Total Community Support Specialist Jobs: 554
Highest 10% Earn:
$92,000
Location Quotient:
1.06

$59,947

Avg. Salary

View 554 Community Support Specialist Jobs In CT
Full List Of Best States For Community Support Specialists

How Do Community Support Specialists Rate Their Jobs?

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Top Community Support Specialist Employers

Most Common Employers For Community Support Specialist

RankCompanyAverage SalaryHourly RateJob Openings
1slstart-landing$47,217$22.70107
2Triumph$45,436$21.8464
3Catholic Charities Health and Human Services$43,487$20.9148
4Pathways$40,806$19.6256
5Professional$38,701$18.6167
6Catholic Community Services of Utah$38,433$18.4866
7Centerstone$38,136$18.3360
8Keystone Human Services$36,621$17.6145
9Central States Group$36,515$17.5631
10START$35,777$17.2033
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Updated April 6, 2023