Community disability services practitioners work for community-based agencies, families, school boards, hospitals, long-term care agencies, and government programs that provide:
- employment services for people with disabilities
- residential supports
- recreational programs
- outreach programs.
Some community disability services practitioners work as educational assistants in schools (for more information, see the Educational Assistant occupational profile). With additional education or on-the-job training, community disability services practitioners may move into related areas such as employment counselling, disability management or behaviour support management. Experienced community disability services practitioners with related training may move into supervisory or management positions.
Community disability services practitioners are part of the larger 2011 National Occupational Classification 4212: Social and community service workers. In Alberta, 76% of people employed in this classification work in the following industries:
The employment outlook [pdf] in this occupation will be influenced by a wide variety of factors including:
- trends and events that affect overall employment (especially in the industries listed above)
- location in Alberta
- employment turnover (work opportunities that come up when people leave existing positions)
- occupational growth (work opportunities that come up when new positions are created)
- size of the occupation.
In Alberta, the E212: Community and Social Service Workers occupational group is expected to have an above-average annual growth of 2.9% from 2016 to 2020. In addition to job openings created by employment turnover, 354 new positions are forecasted to be created within this occupational group each year.
Employment turnover is expected to increase as members of the baby boom generation retire over the next few years.