Family and Human Development Worker
The Family and Human Development Worker help families to create healthy environments for children to grow up in. Helping to facilitate access to prenatal care for pregnant women starts the family on the road to a healthy child. Directing the family to parenting classes, community resources and comprehensive goal setting and advocacy, the Family and Human Development Worker plays a direct role in the growth of the family. The Family and Human Development Worker works with family from the prenatal stage through pre-school age of the children.
The Family and Human Development Worker provides many services to the family which can include:
- Home visits to high-risk families starting with prenatal care
- Working with family to develop individual plans based on family needs and strengths
- Helping parents to gain parenting skills through tailor made curriculum
- Facilitating access to community resources
- Acting as an advocate for the family
- Maintaining records of family assessment, plans and outcomes
Family and Human Development Worker Servicing Human Beings
By providing families with access to parental training and acting as an advocate, the Family and Human Development Worker facilitate the creation of a healthy home environment. For many at risk families, this kind of advocacy and mentorship makes the difference between a healthy home environment and one of dysfunction and difficulty. The Family and Human Development Worker plays a crucial role in the lives of at-risk families.
Impact on Society
The Family and Human Development Worker impacts society in the following ways:
- Reduces risk of birth defects and infant mortality due to prenatal care access
- Helps to stabilize communities by providing parenting education and training to families
- Increases school readiness of children in at-risk families
- Increases community health through access to medical care for children
Impact on the Individual
The Family and Human Development Worker is a massive impact on the lives of children in high-risk homes. By ensuring that their mother receives prenatal care the child’s risk of birth defects is greatly reduced. By educating parents with parental training curriculum, the child’s chances of a healthy and happy home environment are increased exponentially.
By working with the parents from the prenatal stage until pre-school age the child has parents who are adequately prepared and also the child themselves have access to health care and community services they might otherwise not have.
Impact on the Family
The Family and Human Development Worker gives families all the tools they need to succeed in raising healthy happy children. It’s hard to overstate the importance of that for families who are in the high risk category.
Parents are given access to training and health care that can make all the difference in the world as they attempt to transition into parenthood. Many families are able to stay together that might otherwise split up due to the challenges they face. The family is able to flourish where it might otherwise founder without the help of the Family and Human Development Worker.
Education to Join the Workforce
Most agencies require a Family and Human Development Worker to have a minimum of a Bachelor’s degree in a Social Sciences related area of study such as Psychology, Child Development, Human Development, Sociology, Social Work or a closely related field. In addition, most agencies require bilingual or multilingual abilities from prospective candidates.
Range of Salaries for this Job
Family and human development workers earn salaries within the range of $50,820 to $81,920.
What’s Next to Pursue this career?
Most employers will require you to have a Bachelor’s degree in a Social Sciences field such as Psychology, Child Development, Human Development, Sociology, Social Work or a closely related area of study. It is also recommended that you take classes on a foreign language that is common in the region you wish to work. Here are a list of local schools that have programs in these fields of study.
2022 US Bureau of Labor Statistics salary and employment figures for Family and Human Development Worker reflect national data, not school-specific information. Conditions in your area may vary. Data accessed May 2023.