Finding Community Service
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Introduction Have you been assigned community service hours by a court? As part of your probation or sentence? By your school as a requirement for a class or for graduation? No matter the reason you have been assigned mandatory community service, there are a lot of options for you to complete your required service. This is advice to help you get started as quickly as possible and have you finished as soon as possible. (Mandatory community service or a "Court Referral Program" is an alternate sentencing option for Superior, Municipal, Traffic and Juvenile Courts in the USA. These courts have the option to assign community service hours to someone found guilty of a crime, in addition to, or in lieu of, incarceration and/or a fine. Community service is considered restitution by an offender through helping his or her community.) Rules Your mandated community service will probably need to be done at a registered nonprofit organization. A registered nonprofit is one that has a federal tax i.d. number. If you aren't sure if an organization is a registered nonprofit, ask if they have a federal tax id number, or look up the organization on Guidestar.org, a database of all registered nonprofit organizations in the USA. Your mandated community service probably cannot be done to benefit a community of faith (churches, synagogues, mosques, temples, etc.). Check with your probation officer, your court liaison, a teacher at your school, or whomever has assigned you with community service to make sure before you begin working with such an organization. Volunteering with nonprofit organizations with religious affiliations, such as Habitat for Humanity or the Boy Scouts of America, is usually permitted, but check with your probation officer, your court liaison, a teacher at your school, or whomever has assigned you with community service to make sure. Note that you do not have to express any religious affiliation or a belief in God to volunteer for Habitat for Humanity, but you DO have to express a belief in God in order to volunteer for the Boy Scouts (and note that you do NOT have to profess any religious faith to volunteer with the Girl Scouts of the USA). Helping family with tasks (taking your grandmother to the grocery, cleaning your mother's house, baby sitting your sister's kids, etc.) will probably NOT be accepted as your community service. Volunteering at a public school is usually permitted, but volunteering at a religious school may not be. Check with your probation officer, your court liaison, a teacher at your school, or whomever has assigned you with community service to make sure. Volunteering at a government-run agency (a prison, a community court, etc.) may be permitted, but only your probation officer, your court liaison, a teacher at your school can say for sure. Volunteering at a nonprofit hospital is usually permitted, but volunteering at a for-profit hospital, for-profit hospice or for-profit retirement home may not be. Check with your probation officer, your court liaison, a teacher at your school, or whomever has assigned you with community service if you want to volunteer at a for-profit hospital, hospice or senior home. Volunteering for an organization promoting a cause that is considered political may or may not be allowed. Volunteering with a nonprofit that advocates for foreign languages to be taught in schools might be allowed while volunteering for a political party may not be. Check with your probation officer, your court liaison, a teacher at your school, or whomever has assigned you with community service to find out what is and isn't allowed. It is your responsibility to understand the court's or school's or university's requirements for documenting your community service. It is your responsibility to make prior arrangements with each organization where you wish to volunteer and to ask if they are able to meet those documentation requirements. An organization has every right to fire you / let you go as a volunteer. They are under no obligation to keep you -- especially if you have missed shifts, violated policies, etc. What to Say When You Contact an Organization When you contact an organization, don't say immediately, "I have to have so many hours of community service." Say, instead, "I want to volunteer with your organization and want to know how I can get started right away." Organizations do NOT have to take every person who wants to volunteer and, therefore, they prefer people who seem to want to be there rather than those that have to be. In answer to the question, "Why do you want to volunteer," on a form or in an interview, you should most certainly say that you are volunteering so that you can fulfill mandated community service. When you are filling out the volunteering application, tell the organization that you will need a letter by a certain date (and provide that date) that says how many hours you have volunteered at the organization. The organization will probably want you to track your days and hours yourself, so either write your days and hours down on paper or on a spreadsheet on your computer, and keep this information up-to-date! Track the days you volunteered, the times you volunteered, and a little about what you did. Do NOT expect the organization to track your days and hours for you. When you are talking with the organization during your first orientation or interview, tell them how many hours you need for your community service, and by what date. You may need to volunteer at multiple nonprofits in order to get all of the hours you need within a given time frame. Do NOT wait until your service is over to announce that you need a letter confirming your hours, or that you need to organization to sign your spread sheet. Be honest about any and all convictions when you are filling out your volunteering application. Some volunteer roles will ask for your arrest record as well. An arrest or conviction will NOT necessarily disqualify you from volunteering (it depends on the organization, the type of work it does, the population it serves and the volunteer tasks). Where to Find Community Service Opportunities There are many web sites where you can find places to complete your community service: For Canada: Volunteer CanadaVoluntary Organizations Consortium of British Columbia Idealist/Action Without Borders You can also call organizations directly, based on your own interests. If you like animals, for instance, call your local animal shelter. Contact the Girl Scouts of the USA council office that serves your area and see if there is a Girl Scout day camp or single event in your area that you could help with as a volunteer. Nonprofit theaters and performing arts centers are often in need of ushers in the evenings and on weekends; you not only get volunteer hours, you get into a show for free! Call local nonprofit theaters, including community theaters, to see if they need ushers and when you could participate. Do not wait until the last minute to try to volunteer! You will probably need to call several places just to get an appointment for an interview! It may take two to three weeks before you get started volunteering even if you start calling right away! Do not call a place and expect to get 40 hours of community service in one week, starting tomorrow. Do not show up at a work site unannounced. For instance, don't just show up at a Habitat for Humanity work site and say, "I'm here to volunteer." You need to call several days beforehand and go through their formal application and orientation process. You will have to be trained for just about any volunteering you want to do, but training will be counted as a part of your community service time. Online Volunteering Most volunteering that you can do from your home or a school computer requires a certain degree of expertise, such as designing flyers, maintaining a web site, translating text, editing video, designing a database, writing press releases or funding proposals, managing online social networking activities, etc. Even if you have the expertise necessary to volunteer online, you will still probably have to go onsite to the organization you want to help, to introduce yourself, to go through their orientation, to meet staff, and maybe even to convince them to allow you to volunteer online (virtual volunteering). Also, some courts and schools will NOT count online volunteering as part of your community service. You must get permission first before you embark on online volunteering to meet your community service obligation. You can also try these sites to volunteer online, but note that these are REAL volunteering assignments, meaning the commitments you make are REAL. You cannot do these whenever you might have some extra time; you have to make the time to do your online volunteering assignment, should you be lucky enough to get such an assignment:
LibraVox; volunteers create audio books from books whose copyrights have expired. NOAA weather volunteers. Volunteers serve as storm spotters and daily weather observers Join a national network of Cooperative Observer Program (COOP) volunteers. UN Online Volunteering Service; these assignments require skilled volunteers. Assignments include translating documents, writing funding proposals, researching grants, providing expert advice, etc. Nabuur, links Neighbours (online volunteers) with Villages (local communities) in Africa, Asia and Latin America. ebird database, supporting the National Audubon Society. You go "birding" or bird-watching, observing birds with your eye or binoculars, and then enter into the database when, where, and how you went birding, completing a checklist of all the birds seen and heard during the outing. VolunteerMatch.org - Virtual opportunities; Note that many opportunities are mistagged as "virtual", so you will have to read through all the virtual opportunities to determine if they are really something you could do from home. Home-Based Volunteering Below are home-based volunteering tasks you can do that don't involve using the Internet or computers to deliver your services (though you may need to use the Internet to sign up to help). These are assginments for people who sew, knit, or crochet, and for those who want to make greeting cards for ill children or to USA military personnel. Note, however, that some courts and schools will NOT count online volunteering as part of your community service. You must get permission first before you embark on online volunteering to meet your community service obligation.
Mother Bear Project, provides crocheted and knit bears to children with HIV/AIDS Shawl Ministry (faith-based Christian volunteering) Project Linus, making blankets and crafts for sick children Quilts of Valor (QOVs), making quilts for soldiers. Adopt a Soldier, allows volunteers to send letters and items to soliders.
If you have a lot of time and enough money, you can go on these volunteer "vacations", but make sure your probation officer, court liaison or school approves (in writing):
Transportation YOU are responsible for your transportation to and from a volunteering site. Choose community service activities that are near your work place and home, that you can easily get to by bike, by mass transit or by walking if you don't have a car or other reliable transportation. The Value of Your Service You aren't just completing mandatory service hours. As you complete your community service, you are:
If you are volunteering to help you get into a university, note that different colleges and universities have different application processes. Some ask for volunteering hours, some don't. Those that do may want you to fill out a particular form, others will want you to supply letters from the organization confirming your hours, and still others will want you to write a narrative about why you volunteered, what you learned as a part of your experience, why you think volunteering is important, etc., and don't care about number of hours at all. Track volunteering hours yourself! Use a spread sheet or a notebook, and note the organization you assisted, what you did, the day, and how many hours you contributed. When you finish volunteering at an organization, or when you are ready to start filling out college applications, ask the organization you have helped to write a letter on their letterhead confirming how many hours you contributed and what you accomplished (and adding anything else they would like to say). It's a good idea to ask an organization about their policy regarding a letter to confirm your hours BEFORE you start volunteering. Is It Community Service Or Volunteering? It's both! For most nonprofit organizations, the designation "volunteer" is for anyone that is not paid by the organization. Therefore, volunteers include people who are required to provide community service by a court or a school. Most organizations will treat you the same way they treat all of their volunteers. In many circumstances, other volunteers and even most of the paid staff at an organization won't know you are being required to provide community service; to them, you will be just another volunteer, like all other volunteers. Also see
Advice for Volunteer Groups / Group Volunteering. More than you ever wanted to know about Creating or Holding a Successful Fund Raising Event.
Ideas for the Girl Scouts Gold and Silver Awards Ideas for Leadership Volunteering Activities. Ideas for Creating Your Own Volunteering Activity.
Helping People Address Their Problems with Plastic Ideas for Funding Your Volunteering Abroad Trip. Details on volunteering abroad (volunteering internationally). Volunteering To Help After Major Disasters. Careers Working With Animals (for the benefit of animals)
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Disclaimer
Any activity incurs risk. The author assumes no responsibility for the use of information contained within this document.
