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Family support specialist skills for your resume and career

Updated January 8, 2025
5 min read
Quoted experts
Dr. Florence DiGennaro Reed Ph.D.,
Michelle Kelley Shuler Ph.D.
Family support specialist example skills
Below we've compiled a list of the most critical family support specialist skills. We ranked the top skills for family support specialists based on the percentage of resumes they appeared on. For example, 23.2% of family support specialist resumes contained social work as a skill. Continue reading to find out what skills a family support specialist needs to be successful in the workplace.

15 family support specialist skills for your resume and career

1. Social Work

Here's how family support specialists use social work:
  • Collaborated with treatment team of clinical social workers, psychiatrists, psychologists and rehabilitation counselors to develop individualized treatment plans.
  • Empathized with diverse family situations by working with internal educators and social workers and external partner agencies.

2. 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 support specialists use child abuse:
  • Provided support services including crisis counseling, education, and referrals for families involved in child abuse investigations.
  • Assist with community education and public awareness to identify victims of child abuse and prevent further victimization.

3. Patients

Here's how family support specialists use patients:
  • Mediated conflicts between patients, handled medical emergencies, assisted patients in developing and implementing positive and cooperative living skills.
  • Implement Behavioral Activation, Motivational Interviewing, and Cognitive Behavioral Skills with patients and family members.

4. Child Development

Here's how family support specialists use child development:
  • Coordinated home-based intervention services that provided child development and parenting skills information, resource and referrals for high-risk families of newborns.
  • Implemented curriculum, facilitated teaching activities, shared information on child development, and guided positive interactions between parents and children.

5. Crisis Intervention

Here's how family support specialists use crisis intervention:
  • Developed crisis intervention curriculum and effective communication curriculum.
  • Facilitated educational sessions regarding parenting skills, co- occurring diagnosis's, crisis intervention, employment, obtaining housing and transportation.

6. Foster Care

Here's how family support specialists use foster care:
  • Provide direct supervision of program management staff for specialized case management and foster care case management.
  • Coordinated therapeutic foster care services program for teenagers in Western Nebraska.

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7. Support Services

Support services are services that support the organization internally and are usually non-revenue generating. Examples include, IT, admin, HR, etc.

Here's how family support specialists use support services:
  • Fostered collaborative networks with independent family support services staff and MSDE through effective communication protocol and ongoing technical assistance and support.
  • Piloted innovative satellite based delivery of support services to foster parents resulting in better retention of licensed foster homes.

8. 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 support specialists use family services:
  • Developed Family Partnership Agreements with parents for family services and maintained case management in coordination with home educators.
  • Provided administration support to the Senior Manager of Family Services, and served as Personal Assistant simultaneously.

9. CPR

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation or CPR is a medical procedure that involves chest compression to help a patient breathe. This artificial ventilation helps in keeping the brain function in place and regulates blood throughout the body. CPR is a lifesaving procedure that is used in emergencies.

Here's how family support specialists use cpr:
  • Certified in CPR, First Aid, Core Training, EPIC, Communication, Shelter Training and Building B.A.
  • Perform emergency procedures such as First Aid and CPR in the event of an emergency.

10. Public Assistance Programs

Public Assistance Programs are programs designed to improve the lives of members of the public by offering them the assistance they need either in cash or in-kind like foods, clothes, and everyday items. These programs are often offered by the government to alleviate poverty in the populace. NGOs are also involved in providing public assistance programs.

Here's how family support specialists use public assistance programs:
  • Determined initial and continuing client eligibility for Missouri public assistance programs according to state and federal standards and policies.
  • Provide social service to families through determining and reviewing eligibility for a variety of public assistance programs.

11. Mental Health

Mental health is the state of wellbeing in which an individual can cope with the regular stresses and tensions of life, and can work productively without having any emotional or psychological breakdown. Mental health is essential for a person of any age and helps them make the right decisions in their life.

Here's how family support specialists use mental health:
  • Monitor and update pertinent confidential health data for enrolled children and parents including dental/medical requirements, nutrition and mental health needs.
  • Maintained regular contact with clients including home visit, counseled individuals/families regarding mental health, substance/physical abuse, rehabilitation issues.

12. Support Families

Here's how family support specialists use support families:
  • Support families in accessing other community resources.
  • Provide guidance to children, their families and community members dealing with abuse investigations and support families through system involvement.

13. Substance Abuse

Here's how family support specialists use substance abuse:
  • Worked with children, adolescents and adults in providing referrals to both internal or community psychiatric and/or substance abuse services/programs.
  • Coordinated and provided community-based substance abuse prevention counseling to teenagers, and parents who resided in public housing.

14. Child Care

Child care means the care, supervision, or guidance of a child by a person other than the child's parent, guardian, or custodian for periods of less than 24 hours. Childcare could be either center-based such as a daycare or a nursery or home-based care such as nannies or family daycare.

Here's how family support specialists use child care:
  • Assessed and determined parent/provider eligibility and authorize payments for child care.
  • Facilitated and coordinated consistent collaborative meetings with child care providers.

15. Community Agencies

Community agencies stand for the organizations operated to provide human service in the community.

Here's how family support specialists use community agencies:
  • Communicate with staff to provide available information and resources within the community agencies in order to implement prevention/intervention services.
  • Collaborated with staff and community agencies to ensure effective implementation of family support based on predetermined needs assessments.
top-skills

What skills help Family Support Specialists find jobs?

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

What skills stand out on family support specialist resumes?

Dr. Florence DiGennaro Reed Ph.D.Dr. Florence DiGennaro Reed Ph.D. LinkedIn profile

Associate Professor and Chairperson, Director of the Performance Management Laboratory, University of Kansas

In my experience, employers appreciate real-world experience where students/recent graduates can apply the knowledge they learned in their courses to actual work settings. Thus, graduates who have had service-learning practicum courses, internships, or other relevant experiences have resumes that tend to stand out to future employers.

What soft skills should all family support specialists possess?

Michelle Kelley Shuler Ph.D.

Department Chair: Human Services, Austin Community College

I would refer to this skill set as "essential" and consist of compassion, empathy, teamwork, the ability to listen, a sense of humor, and most importantly, the ability to practice self-care. I include self-care in this list because working in the human service field can be exhausting and emotionally overwhelming. Taking care of ourselves helps to prevent burnout and possibly leaving the profession.

What hard/technical skills are most important for family support specialists?

Michelle Kelley Shuler Ph.D.

Department Chair: Human Services, Austin Community College

a. Must have strong basic computer skills and knowledge of software such as excel spreadsheets, google docs, etc. Most, if not all, agencies use electronic health records and treatment planning, so it is necessary to be competent in this area.
b. A degree and additional certifications will assist you in seeking employment. It will also increase your level of competency and diversify the communities you serve. For example, at Austin Community College, we offer our students a chance to complete a certification in Mental Health First Aid Training. This increases their marketability and skill level.

What family support specialist skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?

Dr. Lynann “Annie” ButlerDr. Lynann “Annie” Butler LinkedIn profile

Chair and Professor, Metropolitan State University of Denver

Gap years are good opportunities to get a job in the field of interest. Having some professional experience helps people decide in what field, exactly, they want to earn a master's degree, or can help students to save money and focus their energies if returning to complete their bachelor's degree.

What type of skills will young family support specialists need?

Samantha Fletcher Ph.D.Samantha Fletcher Ph.D. LinkedIn profile

Executive Director, National Association of Social Workers, New York State

The core skills of social work do not change over time. These skills include empathy, active listening, critical thinking, assessment, intervention, evaluation, advocacy, policy analysis, and adaptability. Social workers also need to evaluate the organizations they work in to assess for oppressive practices and policies. One of the profession's core values is social justice, which directs social workers to "pursue social change, particularly with and on behalf of vulnerable and oppressed individuals and groups of people. Social workers' social change efforts are focused primarily on issues of poverty, unemployment, discrimination, and other forms of social injustice" (National Association of Social Workers, 2017). As a profession, social workers aim to dismantle racist, sexist, heterosexist, xenophobic, ableist, classist, and religiously biased systems and structures.

What technical skills for a family support specialist stand out to employers?

Dr. Abby Templer Rodrigues Ph.D.Dr. Abby Templer Rodrigues Ph.D. LinkedIn profile

Assistant Professor of Sociology, Missouri State University

Employers look for oral and written communication skills, the ability to work effectively in diverse teams, analytical and quantitative reasoning, and the ability to adapt to new technologies (Ciabattari et al. 2018). Employers specifically prefer college graduates who have experience applying these skills through internships, service learning, senior projects or collaborative research, field projects, or study abroad (Ciabattari et al. 2018).

References

Ciabattari Teresa, Lowney Kathleen S., Monson Renee A., Senter Mary Scheuer, and Chin
Jeffrey. 2018. "Linking Sociology Majors to Labor Market Success." Teaching Sociology 46 (3): 191-207.
Handwerker, Elizabeth Weber, Peter B. Meyer, and Joseph Piacentini. 2020. "Employment
Recovery in the Wake of the COVID-19 Pandemic." Monthly Labor Review, December, 1-24.
Langin, Katie. 2020. "U.S. faculty job market tanks." Science 370(6514): 272-273.
Do you want to know more?
Read more about what experts have to say about family support specialist

List of family support specialist skills to add to your resume

Family support specialist skills

The most important skills for a family support specialist resume and required skills for a family support specialist to have include:

  • Social Work
  • Child Abuse
  • Patients
  • Child Development
  • Crisis Intervention
  • Foster Care
  • Support Services
  • Family Services
  • CPR
  • Public Assistance Programs
  • Mental Health
  • Support Families
  • Substance Abuse
  • Child Care
  • Community Agencies
  • Community Services
  • Community Resources
  • Parent Education
  • Parent Support
  • Community Outreach
  • Performance Standards
  • Partnership Agreements
  • Domestic Violence
  • Emotional Support
  • Medicaid
  • Parent Involvement
  • Social Service Agencies
  • Pregnant Women
  • Early Childhood Development
  • Management System
  • Provide Emotional Support
  • Risk Families
  • Community Organizations
  • Health Screenings
  • Community Events
  • Early Intervention
  • Direct Services
  • Foster Children
  • Crisis Situations
  • Child Support
  • Law Enforcement
  • Child Protective
  • Conflict Resolution
  • IEP
  • Financial Assistance
  • IFSP
  • Develop Problem Solving
  • Referral Services
  • TANF

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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