What does a Community Support Specialist do?
Community support specialists create programs that provide public assistance to community members in need, including childcare service programs for the mentally ill. They strive to help and empower vulnerable community members to develop themselves and improve their lives. They are a resource for individuals interested in seeking emergency assistance, housing, financial help, or other forms of public health, and provide information and assistance.
Community support specialists accompany clients to medical appointments and community activities, and interview potential clients and family members using the information to compile a file related to their backgrounds. Community support specialists follow up on meetings and community activities and offer advice or information regarding resources including proper financial management or childcare services. Community support specialists play a vital role as members of an action team and need an associate's degree or higher in communications, social work, or related fields.
- Provide culturally and linguistically appropriate services to assigned clients.
- Coordinate patient care with other health providers and health programs.
- Prepare evidence, attend and testify in state level hearings on applicant/participant appeals.
- Actively monitor key social and community channels, helping to quickly respond to social inquiries that need immediate assistance, as well as identify and guide potentially sensitive conversations to a swift resolution.
- Promote quality recreation/wellness programming to residents, families, visitors, staff and volunteers.
- Ensure all necessary records are maintained and kept confidential.
- Conduct home visit to promote skill build, identify client needs, provide emotional support, and assist in resource linking.
- Maintain current knowledge of available community resources and community outreach program options for referral.
- Monitor through contacting individuals receiving services to determine if services are meeting the individual's needs.
- Assist with setup of meeting room space for community programs.
- Take necessary steps to promote and provide access to care.
- Responsible for reproducing, confirming, documenting, and resolving new issues.
- Coach, mentor, and assist frontline support teams when needed across all current or future engagement/communication channels, with a focus on social channels and community touchpoints.
- Help track and identify trends across social channels, based on conversation topics, locations and other noticeable patterns to identify emerging issues.
- Participate in and evaluate progress of individualized care plan.
- Investigate activities of probationers or parolees to ascertain their level of readjustment to society.
- Provide basic screening tests (e.g., height, weight, blood pressure).
- Comfortable generating and analyzing both quantitative and qualitative data to diagnose customer feedback, team performance, and identify actionable improvement opportunities.
- Use motivational interventions to assist clients in meeting their goals and moving along their paths to recovery, utilizing stage wise interventions.
- Develop crisis plans for clients and work with other staff to respond to crisis situations as needed.
- Provide clinical guidance and supervisory oversight to other clinicians on their team.
- Assign, coordinate, and review work and activities of programming personnel.
- Bachelor's Degree in business, business administration, behavioral science or social science, or equivalent experience.
- A leader, critical thinker, and excellent communicator.
- A natural problem solver with a demonstrated sound work ethic.
- Collaborate with team members to assist with life skills such as grooming and toileting.
- Work as an advocate for both clients or patients and employer.
- Is a professional at all times with a knack for creative thinking.
- Comfortable making decisions alone and with others.
How much does a Community Support Specialist make?
Base Pay
Additional Pay
$42,407
/ yrCommunity Support Specialist Career Path
Learn how to become a Community Support Specialist, what skills and education you need to succeed, and what level of pay to expect at each step on your career path.
Years of Experience Distribution
Community Support Specialist Insights
“The pay isn’t great within the sector generally although it’s better here than most”
Healthcare Express“And driving 5 hours for a day long meeting about nothing was all I could take.”
Sunnyfield“Flexible and good pay.”
Arcane Horizon“Good and understanding management.”
TEDi“Balance of work and life”
ALDI“job is well paid and good skill building”
“Nice place to work because residents are nice.”
Howard Center“In my program this flexibility is one of the reasons many parents choose to work here.”
Frequently asked questions about the roles and responsibilities of a Community Support Specialist
- Clinical Social Worker
- Social Worker
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