Workforce Council

Other Community Services

Community Services include organisations whose primary goal is to support individual or community well-being and to meet the needs of vulnerable and at-risk community members. A diverse range of sectors exist within the Community Services industry in Queensland, and separate pages have been developed for some of the larger of these sectors including Aged Care & Community Care, Disability Services and Children's Services. This section describes the plethora of other services and sectors that fall outside of the aforementioned large sectors to make up the industry.

Scope of the Community Services Industry

The industry sectors described below are loosely defined and  there is considerable cross-over between them. One organisation or service may work across a range of sectors.

• Homelessness & Housing - services provide support and/or advocacy for people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness and endeavour to support them to access and maintain short and long term housing solutions.
• Youth - services provide support and/or advocacy for young people. This can include planning for youth wellbeing, early intervention and prevention services for at-risk young people, youth justice services and youth support coordination services.

   View more information on the Youth Services Sector.

• Migrant & Settlement - services provide support to recently arrived migrants and humanitarian refugees.
• Alcohol & Other Drugs - these services straddle the boundary with the health industry  but often provide a community rather than medical model of support. Services include community based detoxification, residential support, counseling and mental health services.
• Child Protection - services provide support to vulnerable families, and placement, residential care or therapeutic services to children and young people who have been removed from their families. The Department of Communities, Child Safety Services provides statutory child protection services.

   View more information on the Child Protection Sector.

• Family & Domestic Violence - services support those experiencing family & domestic violence through counseling, crisis accommodation, perpetrator education and other services.
• Community Development - services provide support to communities (rather than individual clients) to develop their own solutions to problems within their communities. For example, Neighborhood Centers may support a range of self-help and interest groups that may prevent social isolation for members of that community rather than providing support to clients who are socially isolated.
• Family & Individual Support - services provide all manner of supports to families and individuals. This can include crisis assistance, support to manage addictions or substance misuse, financial counseling, Family & relationship support including mediation , older persons programs and mental health community support programs.

Within and across these sectors, are areas of specialisation that also define practice, these include:

• Indigenous Services
• Culturally & Linguistically Diverse Services
• Rural & Remote Services

Services which specialise in providing support to these target groups are likely to work across two or more of the sectors defined above and/or to work in partnership with other services.

It can be difficult to clearly define boundaries between organisations working in other sectors such as health, sport and recreation, housing, legal and cultural sectors. For example, an arts organisation providing community development through art-based projects with young people may define itself as a community service, or, a program designed to support people experiencing mental health issues may see itself as both a health and a community service.

• Types of Employers

  The majority of organisations within the industry operate on a not-for-profit basis, although there are a small number of for-profit organisations and both state and local governments are service providers. A defining quality of the industry is its high level of dependence on government funding, and hence its vulnerability to being defined through changing government policy.

   

  There are a number of larger organisations who operate across a range of sectors and geographic areas. For example one organization may have branches or offices in many locations within Queensland. There may be a Family Support Program, a Migrant Settlement Program, an Emergency Relief program and a Homelessness Program at each of these offices. Many, but not all of these larger organisations are church-based. Many are also national organisations.

   

  The industry, and particularly some sectors such as youth, community development and family support is also characterized by many very small organisations, employing only a few workers, or even a single worker. Some organisations are entirely voluntary, so that all services are delivered by volunteers.

• Size of the Queensland Community Services Industry

  In 2009, the Queensland Department of Communities funded 1, 487 community service organisations and amount of $1,129.1 million (QCOSS, 2009). Of course many services are also funded by Commonwealth Departments such as FACSIA and by other state government departments such as Housing, Arts and Health. Still further services are privately or donor funded.

   

  The Australian Institute of Health & Welfare 2009 estimated the number of Community Services workers in Queensland as 59,089. There are very high numbers of volunteers working in community services. This level of community engagement is extremely positive for the industry, but does present some unique workforce challenges.

• Key Job Roles

  The Community Services Industry is diverse and it is difficult to describe roles that may look very different across sectors or even services. However there do appear to be some commonalities in role levels.

  • Chief Executive Officer
  • Organization Manager
  • Program, Service  or Project  Manager  - managing the delivery of service to clients
  • Function Manager -  managing a function of the organization such as  Finance or  HR
  • Team Leader/Project Coordinator coordinating a team of people or area of work
  • Administration Worker - usually defined by role e.g. Accounts Payable Officer, Receptionist etc.
  • Service Delivery Worker - usually defined by sector e.g. Youth Worker, Community Development Worker etc.

   

  Key job roles in delivering services to clients can include:

  Community Development Worker	Social Worker
  Homelessness Support Worker	Outreach Worker
  Crisis Accommodation Support Worker	Youth worker
  Family Support Worker	Housing Support Worker
  Domestic Violence Support Worker	Counsellor
  Settlement Support Worker	Residential Care Worker
  Mental Health Support Worker	Alcohol & Drugs Worker
  Migrant Resource Worker	Financial Counsellor

   

• Relevant Qualifications

  Pathway qualifications - support job seekers to move into the industry

  • CHC10108....... Certificate I in Work Preparation (Community services)
  • CHC20108....... Certificate II in Community Services
  • CHC30108....... Certificate III in Community Services Work
  • Qualifications for Service Delivery Roles
  • CHC40408....... Certificate IV in Alcohol and Other Drugs
  • CHC40508....... Certificate IV in Mental Health
  • CHC50208....... Diploma of Community Services (Alcohol and other drugs)
  • CHC50308....... Diploma of Community Services (Mental health)
  • CHC50408....... Diploma of Community Services (Alcohol, other drugs and mental health)
  • CHC40708....... Certificate IV in Community Services Work
  • CHC50608....... Diploma of Community Services Work
  • CHC40808....... Certificate IV in Community Development
  • CHC50708....... Diploma of Community Development
  • CHC30508....... Certificate III in Social Housing
  • CHC40908....... Certificate IV in Social Housing
  • CHC50808....... Diploma of Social Housing
  • CHC41008....... Certificate IV in Community Services Advocacy
  • CHC41408....... Certificate IV in Child, Youth and Family Intervention 
    (Residential and out of home care)
  • CHC41508....... Certificate IV in Child, Youth and Family Intervention  (Child protection)
  • CHC41608....... Certificate IV in Child, Youth and Family Intervention  (Family support)
  • CHC51208....... Diploma of Child, Youth and Family Intervention
  • CHC41808....... Certificate IV in Youth Work
  • CHC51408....... Diploma of Youth Work
  • CHC41908....... Certificate IV in Youth Justice
  • CHC51508....... Diploma of Youth Justice
  • CHC30908....... Certificate III in Employment Services
  • CHC42008....... Certificate IV in Employment Services
  • CHC42108....... Certificate IV in Career Development
  • CHC51608....... Diploma of Employment Services
  • CHC31008....... Certificate III in Telephone Counselling Skills
  • CHC42208....... Certificate IV in Telephone Counselling Skills
  • CHC42308....... Certificate IV in Mediation
  • CHC51708....... Diploma of Counselling
  • CHC51808....... Diploma of Family Intake and Support Work
  • CHC42408....... Certificate IV in Relationship Education
  • CHC51908....... Diploma of Relationship Education
  • CHC42508....... Certificate IV in Community Services (Information, advice and referral)
  • CHC42608....... Certificate IV in Celebrancy
  • CHC52008....... Diploma of Community Services (Case management)
  • CHC52108....... Diploma of Community Services (Financial counselling)
  • CHC70108....... Vocational Graduate Certificate in Community Services Practice
    (Statutory child protection)
  • CHC70208....... Vocational Graduate Certificate in Community Services Practice
    (Client assessment and case management)
  • CHC70308....... Vocational Graduate Certificate in Career Development Practice
  • CHC80208....... Vocational Graduate Diploma of Relationship Counselling
  • CHC80308....... Vocational Graduate Diploma of Family Dispute Resolution
  • Community Sector coordination/management qualifications
  • CHC42708....... Certificate IV in Volunteer Program Coordination
  • CHC52208....... Diploma of Community Services Coordination
  • CHC60308....... Advanced Diploma of Community Sector Management
  • CHC80108....... Vocational Graduate Diploma of Community Sector Management

  Many roles in the Community Services industry require a university qualification in human services, social work or psychology.