Social Assistance, Except Child Day Care

Social assistance careers have a great appeal to those strongly motivated to help others less fortunate.  They tend to be good communicators and genuinely enjoy interacting with people.  Jobs in this industry run the gamut from helping the homeless to preventing at-risk families from becoming homeless.  There are positions in mental health clinics working with emotionally disturbed or troubled persons and   job clinics offer training to assist the unemployed or underemployed to find better opportunities.

Social assistance is divided into many segments allowing a great deal of choice for the employee.  They can choose to work primarily with organizations that cater to nonresidential clients, providing services for children, the elderly, or those with mental or physical disabilities.  Others may prefer assisting in providing food and housing or emergency relief to the community.  There are organizations which specialize in collecting, preparing, and delivering food and clothing to the needy.  Still other organizations run shelters for those in need of short-term housing such as victims of domestic violence, rape, or child abuse.  In this segment there are other groups that actually construct or repair permanent housing and provide subsidized housing to their clients.

There is a great deal of variation within the social assistance job sector.  Workers may specialize in home nursing cases, work with mentally disturbed clients, carry meals to shut-ins, provide a daily or weekly contact with elderly clients living alone.  Some specialize in child welfare and become advocates for abused or troubled children.  Others prefer counseling clients in career choices and assist them in entering training programs then later finding suitable employment.

Educational requirements for social assistance positions are as varied as the positions.  Applicants may need at the least a bachelor’s degree in social work to handle casework.  Those wishing to work as clinical psychologists will not only require a degree but state licensure.  However, there are many position available to applicants with little or no formal training beyond high school.  And many organizations provide on-the-job training to serious applicants.

Jobs in social assistance are on the increase as current workers reach retirement age and drop out of the work force.  There is also a problem with early burn-out as this is considered a high stress work environment.  At the same time need for more workers increases annually.  This could be termed a growth industry in terms of the future job availability.

However, the pay scale for social assistance workers is low.  This is partly due to the large number of relatively unskilled positions, some of which pay just above minimum wage.  But even for more highly-trained individuals with advanced degrees and state licensure, the pay is surprisingly low, generally below $20/hour. 

Social assistance work can be both rewarding and extremely stressful at the same time.  It is an opportunity to accomplish great good for others and sometimes this is more than enough compensation for some.  There are always positions available, full- and part-time and the industry as a whole is growing.