How To Become An Outreach Counselor: What It Is and Career Path

What is an outreach counselor and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted expert

Debra Minsky-Kelly

Outreach counselors work with people facing various problems. They might work in healthcare attending to people who have a mental illness or other diseases, or assist troubled youth or children living in unstable environments.

As an outreach counselor, you will assist people in your care, supporting them in daily living tasks and helping them engage with their communities. It will be your job to help them carry out daily chores and personal hygiene routines and encourage and facilitate social situations for them and generally increase their living standards.

It will be your job to coach your clients and provide them counseling. Creating the documentation of the work you do will be your responsibility as well, such as case notes, assessments, progress reports, and social histories. A degree in psychology or a related field will be necessary to hold this role.

What general advice would you give to an outreach counselor?

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.

ScoreOutreach CounselorUS Average

Salary

3.6

Avg. Salary $45,946

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

9.0

Growth rate 10%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.0

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.62%

Asian 3.74%

Black or African American 10.64%

Hispanic or Latino 14.20%

Unknown 3.76%

White 67.03%

Gender

female 68.83%

male 31.17%

Age - 41

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 - 41

Stress level

9.0

Stress level is very high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

9.7

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

5.7

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become an outreach counselor

Explore outreach counselor education requirements

Most common outreach counselor degrees

Bachelor's

62.7 %

Master's

19.6 %

Associate

11.4 %

Start to develop specific outreach counselor skills

Skills	Percentages
Social Work	15.06%
Rehabilitation	7.16%
Mental Illness	6.31%
Community Agencies	5.72%
Outreach Program	5.69%

Complete relevant outreach counselor training and internships

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

Research outreach counselor duties and responsibilities

Conduct group check-in and co-lead group psychotherapy sessions to help clients identify and manage problems associate with psychiatric conditions.
Deliver direct services to children with autism by executing individualize plans, completing necessary documentation and communication effectively with team.
Validate entitlement and process customer claims for reimbursement for submission to DFAS for payment.
Process claims for reimbursement, determine entitlements and prepare documents for submission to DFAS for payment.

Prepare your outreach counselor resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your outreach counselor 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 an outreach counselor resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable outreach counselor resume templates

Build a professional outreach counselor 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 outreach counselor resume.

Apply for outreach counselor jobs

Now it's time to start searching for an outreach counselor 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 outreach counselors rate their job?

-/5

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Outreach counselor reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Dec 2019

Pros

Serving people, impacting change in communities, never boring

A zippia user wrote a review on Apr 2019

Cons

The over documentation required by DHS that robs the quality time needed in intervention and treatment. This lopsided demand makes the term “best practices” mere bureaucratic lip service without the means to actually deliver quality hands on services.