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

What is a family service worker and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted expert

Debra Minsky-Kelly

Family service workers are also known as family support workers. They equip families and parents with the resources they need to support themselves and thrive. Some of their techniques include aiding communication and educating the families about physical and emotional self-care and stress-coping mechanisms.

Family service workers may also intervene in difficult family situations or develop strategies to support struggling families. They educate parents on healthy habits, positive practices and help them focus on longevity.

As a family service worker, they help families by finding resources that can support them. This may include looking into the community or ensuring that families receive social service support and aid. They may also make recommendations for job training and other available resources.

To become a family service worker, applicants need a degree in social work or a related field. Some social workers may also need a master's degree and relevant work experience.

What general advice would you give to a family 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.

ScoreFamily Service WorkerUS Average

Salary

2.9

Avg. Salary $37,674

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

10.0

Growth rate 9%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

9.3

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 1.51%

Asian 2.67%

Black or African American 13.37%

Hispanic or Latino 15.12%

Unknown 4.19%

White 63.14%

Gender

female 85.23%

male 14.77%

Age - 42

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 - 42

Stress level

10.0

Stress level is very high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.5

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

6.2

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a family service worker

Explore family service worker education requirements

Most common family service worker degrees

Bachelor's

69.0 %

Master's

13.1 %

Associate

12.8 %

Start to develop specific family service worker skills

Skills	Percentages
Social Work	17.76%
Foster Care	9.53%
Child Abuse	8.63%
Protective Services	4.71%
Mental Health	4.69%

Complete relevant family service worker training and internships

Accountants spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. New family 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 family service worker based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real family service worker resumes.

Research family service worker duties and responsibilities

Help children/youth in state custody achieve permanency whether through reintegration, adoption or custodianship.
Practice motivational interviewing techniques to assist individuals in identifying personal hurdles in order to set goals and work towards rehabilitation.
Establish and maintain relationships with stakeholder (DSS staff, schools and community partners).
Integrate the individual support plan (ISP) objective into the individuals' daily schedule.

Prepare your family service worker resume

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

Build a professional family service worker 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 family service worker resume.

Apply for family service worker jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a family service worker 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 family service workers rate their job?

-/5

5 stars

4 stars

3 stars

2 stars

1 star

Family service worker reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Jan 2024

Cons

Stressful, dangerous neighborhoods, sometimes parents are dangerous as well. Work life balance isn't good. Documentation is very time consuming and you will bring that home to finish. If your agency requires that you do your app recorded time sheets then that will prove ardously time consuming constaint that cuts right into your work/home life balance...it's terrible. Wear and tear on your car, no shows from parents upsetting children and paid mileage is horrible. Get ready to barely have a life.

A zippia user wrote a review on Jun 2019

Pros

Working with people, making people happy and feel cared for