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Apply hereOnline Masters Master of Arts in Human Services
Are you ready for the next level in your family and community services career? Do you feel ready to empower families and communities — both locally and globally? Mizzou's online master’s degree in family and community services can help you get there.
With your degree, you'll learn key skills and strategies to improve communities. Our world-class faculty will teach you to manage and evaluate programs for effective human services. You'll also learn how to deliver programs for children and families. The curriculum provides you tools to lead in social service agencies. If you want to work with children, youth, adults and families in community agency settings, this is the degree for you.
The family and community services online master’s degree will provide you with a well-rounded curriculum that focuses on career applicability. Take what you learn and make an impact in your work. By earning a master of arts online with Mizzou, you'll be able to earn your degree on your schedule. This flexible experience that gives you the power to choose your future.
About the MA in Family and Community Services
The Master of Arts in Human Development and Family Science with an emphasis in Family and Community Services from Mizzou's Department of Human Development and Family Science provides you necessary human services skills.
Through the online masters in human services, you will:
- Understand individual, family, interpersonal and community dynamics across the life span.
- Develop knowledge and skills related to the design, implementation and sustainability of family and community programming.
- Develop essential knowledge and skills for family and community program leadership and management.
Quick facts
Official name
Master of Arts in Human Development and Family Science with an emphasis in Family and Community ServicesCampus
Program type
Master's degreeAcademic home
College of Education & Human Development | Department of Human Development and Family ScienceDelivery mode
100% onlineAccreditation
Higher Learning CommissionCredit hours
36Estimated cost
$22,392.00*This cost is for illustrative purposes only. Your hours and costs will differ, depending on your transfer hours, your course choices and your academic progress. See more about tuition and financial aid.
Career prospects
The online master’s in family and community services degree is a broadly applicable program that can lead to many rewarding professions across public, private and nonprofit industries. Career paths include family support services, non-profit management, and integrated family and behavioral health.
Our graduates work in a variety of family and community settings such as:
- Public policy/government agencies
- County Extension offices, military community services
- Pre/post-deployment assistance
- Family advocacy programs
- Child development centers
- Social service agencies
- Emergency shelters/crisis centers
Job titles of recent graduates:
- Social or community service manager
- Health educator or community health worker
- Certified Family Life Educator
Program structure
Delivery of the online family and community services master’s program is 100% online: no campus visits are required.
Courses are semester-based and offered by multiple universities taking part in the Innovative Digital Education Alliance (IDEA) consortium. Depending on which university is teaching your course that semester, your courses may have different start and finish dates.
Students typically take one or two classes each semester and finish in two to three years.
Course work includes
- Resilience in families
- Interpersonal relationships
- Family resource management
- Family dynamics and intervention
- Foundations and principles of family and community services
- Lifespan development
- Family crisis intervention
- Parenting education
- Administration and program management
- Program design, implementation and evaluation
Delivery
100% onlineCalendar system
Semester-basedTypical program length
2 or 3 yearsTypical course load
1 or 2 classes each semesterInnovative Digital Education Alliance (IDEA)
IDEA is a consortium of 20 renowned public universities from across the United States, offering online degree and certificate programs in human sciences and agriculture. Students apply to and are admitted by one university, enroll in all of their courses through that university and graduate from that university. However, the online courses are taught by faculty in the discipline from several universities.
Accreditation
The University of Missouri is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission, one of six regional institutional accreditors in the United States.
Faculty spotlight
Ashlie Lester is an associate teaching professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Science at the University of Missouri. Dr. Lester's research focuses on the scholarship of teaching and learning. She won the Writing Intensive Teaching Excellence Award in 2022, the College of Human Environmental Sciences Distinguished Teaching Award in 2018, and the Great Plains IDEA Teaching Excellence Award in 2017.
She is always interested in talking to others about HDFS graduate programs, so reach out if you have any questions.
Robin Peiter Horstmeier earned her doctorate from Oklahoma State University in 2002. Her research focuses on youth-adult partnerships, agricultural education, youth roles in community partnerships and administration of youth organizations. In addition to working for the University of Missouri, Dr. Horstmeier is owner and chief executive officer of Horstmeier Consulting and has published several scholarly articles on youth organization and agricultural education.