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Family preservation worker skills for your resume and career

Updated January 8, 2025
3 min read
Quoted experts
Dr. Susan Snyder Ph.D.,
Dr. Dianna Cooper
Below we've compiled a list of the most critical family preservation worker skills. We ranked the top skills for family preservation workers based on the percentage of resumes they appeared on. For example, 24.7% of family preservation worker resumes contained social work as a skill. Continue reading to find out what skills a family preservation worker needs to be successful in the workplace.

15 family preservation worker skills for your resume and career

1. Social Work

Here's how family preservation workers use social work:
  • Attended and reported at monthly IFP rounds meetings held at DCF with IFP team, DCF social workers and liaison.
  • Worked as a team with a licensed social worker to ensure families were being seen twice a week.

2. Crisis Intervention

Here's how family preservation workers use crisis intervention:
  • Participated in treatment team planning and crisis intervention.
  • Provided crisis intervention and consumer advocacy.

3. Child Welfare

Here's how family preservation workers use child welfare:
  • Delivered comprehensive therapeutic services to children, adolescents and adults involved with child welfare and prevention services.
  • Initiate or conduct various types of investigations including child welfare assessments and abuse investigations in high-risk families.

4. Child Protective

Here's how family preservation workers use child protective:
  • Obtained referrals from The Department of Social Services, Child Protective Services (CPS) Division.
  • Served as a member of an interdisciplinary team, in conjunction of Child Protective Services.

5. Community Resources

Community resources are a set of resources that are used in the day to day life of people which improves their lifestyle in some way. People, sites or houses, and population assistance can come under the services offered by community resources.

Here's how family preservation workers use community resources:
  • Empowered clients in accessing community resources and identifying healthy support systems.
  • Coordinated linkages between families and various therapeutic agencies and community resources.

6. Court Hearings

Here's how family preservation workers use court hearings:
  • Attend case related court hearings.
  • Prepared necessary court documentation, filed petitions, testified in court hearings and discussed legal strategies with supervisor.

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7. Risk Factors

Here's how family preservation workers use risk factors:
  • Assess and identify risk factors that impede family safety.
  • Perform safety assessments to determine risk factors for child removal or temporary placement for protection.

8. Family Preservation

Here's how family preservation workers use family preservation:
  • Provide intensive home-based counseling services for children and families for the purpose of family preservation and family reunification.
  • Provided intensive in-home family preservation and clinical case management services to families and children.

9. Out-of-Home Placements

Here's how family preservation workers use out-of-home placements:
  • Collaborated with family members and referents in developing intervention goals and service plans directly related to the risk of out-of-home placement.
  • Strengthen and preserve families by preventing unnecessary out-of-home placement of children and adolescents.

10. Foster Care

Here's how family preservation workers use foster care:
  • Provided intensive family services to families at risk of having a child or children placed in Foster Care.
  • Gather resources for families who are being reunified after a separation by the foster care system.

11. Family Assessments

Here's how family preservation workers use family assessments:
  • Reviewed records of abusing/neglecting families to obtain a Comprehensive Family Assessment.
  • Prepare summaries, reports, treatment/reunification plans and family assessment forms.

12. Family Services

Family services often refers to a division of family support that helps a family better understand how to be successful. This may include recommendations for self-care, such as physical or emotional health, or other financial support systems for families in poorer households, which may include a welfare plan or other form of government assistance.

Here's how family preservation workers use family services:
  • Supported life skills training, coordinated referral services, and prepared discharge summaries for the Division of Youth and Family Services.
  • Engaged families in identifying strength based goals and objectives to create family service plan and agreement.

13. Child Abuse

When a child who is under 18 is mistreated by an adult, it is considered child abuse. There are many forms of intentional harm and mistreatment for example physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, medical abuse, and neglect in providing adequate basic life necessities.

Here's how family preservation workers use child abuse:
  • Conduct daily home visits to monitor the safety of the children in the home to prevent child abuse and neglect.
  • Evaluated and recommended appropriate actions necessary to resolve family emotional and/or physical stress situations, which caused child abuse or neglect.

14. Family Strengths

Here's how family preservation workers use family strengths:
  • Assist with the development of an Initial Service Plan which focuses on family strengths, recommendations, and therapeutic approaches.
  • Provide direct services to families by assisting them in determining family strengths, needs, and goals.

15. Domestic Violence

Domestic violence is a pattern of violent, intimidating, or abusive behavior in any relationship committed by someone within the victim's circle - partner, ex-partner, parents, family, and friends, to gain or maintain power and control over the victim. This can be emotional, sexual, social, financial, economic, psychological, spiritual, and/or physical abuse.

Here's how family preservation workers use domestic violence:
  • Provided individual therapeutic services to mental health and domestic violence (offender/victim) clientele.
  • Interview individuals involved in domestic violence or sexual assault for general profile to determine eligibility guidelines to receive services through agency.
top-skills

What skills help Family Preservation Workers find jobs?

Tell us what job you are looking for, we’ll show you what skills employers want.

What skills stand out on family preservation worker resumes?

Dr. Susan Snyder Ph.D.Dr. Susan Snyder Ph.D. LinkedIn profile

Associate Professor, Georgia State University

Being able to clearly demonstrate experience is helpful. Students should not include passive activities, like attending meetings, or menial tasks, like making copies, but skills that show what they are qualified to do. Good activities could be community organizing, event planning, grant writing, program evaluation, or facilitating groups. Additionally, students who demonstrate strong written and verbal communication skills, including social media skills, tend to do well. Working collaboratively, including across organizations, is important for a lot of different positions our students seek. If students' resumes show that they can also analyze data, they can have even more options.

What soft skills should all family preservation workers possess?

Dr. Dianna Cooper

Associate Professor, Campbellsville University

The "change theory" used in social work practice follows several steps, including engaging, assessing, planning, intervening, evaluating, terminating, and following up. Soft skills are most likely to occur in engagement, intervention, and termination. Social workers are trained to "start wherever the client is," understanding that clients can be individuals, families, groups, communities, or organizations. Social workers are trained to respect the client as the expert in their needs, honor self-determination, use a strengths-based approach, and respect difference while using inclusion. The training turns into soft skills such as being empathetic, warm, genuine, and respectful. Social workers also develop skills in knowing when to listen and when to nudge the client toward action. Social workers are trained to intervene and, when change is completed, to terminate. Helping clients know when to end services also requires soft skills of talking about hard topics, seeing a brighter future and setting goals, recognizing when change is happening, and saying goodbye respectfully.

What hard/technical skills are most important for family preservation workers?

Dr. Dianna Cooper

Associate Professor, Campbellsville University

Hard or technical skills are most likely to occur in the stages of assessing, planning, intervening, and evaluating change theory. Social workers are trained to gather lots of information and then analyze strengths and needs. Social workers present their assessments to clients and work together to create goals and the steps that reach goals when executed. The process involves using the client's vision of what "better" looks like. Social workers then use evidence-based techniques to move the client toward the goal and define measures to know when the goal is met. The technical skills used in this process include analyzing many types of information repeatedly, knowing what resources exist and how to refer, knowing how to design effective goals and steps to achieve goals, researching current evidence-based practices, defining and measuring progress, and setting limits and timeframes.

What family preservation worker skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?

Emily McCave PhD, MSW, LCSW

Professor of Social Work, Website

The need for social workers is high, particularly after the pandemic. A shortage of social workers means that there's an increasing demand in the field. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics social work jobs are expected to increase 13% between 2020 and 2030.

What type of skills will young family preservation workers need?

M Elizabeth Bowman Ph.D.M Elizabeth Bowman Ph.D. LinkedIn profile

Instructor, Gallaudet University

Social work graduates will need an ongoing understanding of cultural competence, explicitly incorporating a global perspective of the social work field and systems of oppression domestically and internationally. Students should be prepared by emphasizing cultural competency training within BSW and MSW programs, with exposure to varying cultures through the international school of social work partnerships. Additionally, social workers are expected to be aware of and competent in using technology, both for record-keeping and internal agency process, and for supporting case management (i.e., internet searches for resources, research for evidence-based practice, technology education, and support of clients).
Do you want to know more?
Read more about what experts have to say about family preservation worker

List of family preservation worker skills to add to your resume

Family preservation worker skills

The most important skills for a family preservation worker resume and required skills for a family preservation worker to have include:

  • Social Work
  • Crisis Intervention
  • Child Welfare
  • Child Protective
  • Community Resources
  • Court Hearings
  • Risk Factors
  • Family Preservation
  • Out-of-Home Placements
  • Foster Care
  • Family Assessments
  • Family Services
  • Child Abuse
  • Family Strengths
  • Domestic Violence
  • Protective Services
  • Court Reports
  • Family Therapy
  • DCF
  • Support Services
  • Child Safety
  • Community Agencies
  • Social Service Agencies
  • Community Services
  • CPS
  • DHS
  • Family Dynamics
  • Parent Education
  • Law Enforcement
  • Behavior Management
  • Conflict Resolution

Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Research Team
Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.

Updated January 8, 2025

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