Considering their role in various social assistance programs that ensure harmony within the society, Community and social services worker (CSW) and Settlement Workers are in great demand these days in virtually every field. In short, they are the life line of the society. The job of the former entails assisting people who are embroiled in personal and social problems and they are mainly employed by government agencies and social service organizations, besides hospitals and educational institutions. The latter, have a similar job profile too, but mainly work with the destitute and refugee kind of people.

Community and social services worker or CSW often work in various capacities. These include aboriginal outreach officers and workers, addictions worker and a variety of other posts that entail implementation of various welfare programs for the public. The duties of CSW personnel include interviewing the public that they are catering to obtain their background information, evaluate their skills, strengths and weaknesses, assist them in developing a plan of action and locating resources, providing legal, medical and financial assistance, besides ensuring help in problems related to housing, employment, transportation and a variety of other services.

They ensure delivery of requisite services to the members of the community that they are associated with, work in office, indulge in counseling and prepare the feedback. Settlement Workers, who are an important part of the social fabric just like the Community and social services worker (CSW), are nowadays finding favor with schools, particularly the ones that receive a large number of students, who migrate from other countries or come from different backgrounds.

These students often face problems while settling down. The job of the settlement workers is to help them get acquainted with their new surroundings and settle down in the new atmosphere. However, that does not mean that they are not needed in other fields. Settlement Workers have their own importance as far as fields like politics where they help immigrants and refugees get acquainted with the laws of the country of their adoption, and their rights and duties therein.

They help these people settle down and get familiar with the new environment and help them cope up with the pressures that they might face at the time of their settlement. The process of settling down the refugees may take a couple of years, but is quite a challenging as well as fulfilling job. They may even perform the role of counseling new entrants into the political field, and hence, have to be well-versed therewith.

Some of the Settlement Workers even act as municipal reformers. A reformer’s job is to ensure that the rules and regulations governing a community do not hamper their growth. If they do, they identify the loopholes that are causing the problem and set about on a process of reform. However, both the occupations require thorough training in the form of specialized degrees offered by professional colleges and institutes. There are many institutions that are cashing in on this need for social welfare professionals to impart training to the aspiring candidates.

A college or university program in social work, child and youth care, counseling or other social science or health-related discipline can equip prospective Community and social services worker (CSW) and Settlement Workers like nothing else can. And then a candidate requires professional experience in the field, which too is provided by these institutes as a part of their training program, which is sure to give the students an edge over amateur social workers.