community service

Community service refers to service that a person performs for the benefit of his or her local community. People become involved in community service for a range of reasons — for some, serving community is an altruistic act, for others it is a punishment or even sometimes makes a friend. The term "community service" therefore refers to projects that members of certain youth organizations, such as the Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts and some high school students perform. It is also an alternative sentencing technique in a justice system. And at times groups of people will commit to perform service to the community as a gesture to the larger community, as part of gift economics.

Examples of community service projects include (but are not limited to):

• cleaning a park;
• collecting much needed items including clothes, shoes, food, blankets, etc.;
• getting involved with Habitat for Humanity;

• reading to the elderly in nursing homes;
• helping out a local fire or police department;
• performing health assessments;
• helping out at a local library; and
• tutoring developmentally disabled children for free.
• school activities that benefit community

Many community service projects are done by sororities and fraternities. One fraternity that was created for the sole purpose of doing community service is Alpha Phi Omega, a co-ed fraternity.

Community service among youth

Community service that engages youth is often called youth service. It is a methodology that is simultaneously employed to strengthen young peoples' senses of civic engagement and nationalism, as well as assist them in meeting educational, developmental and social goals. George Dos Santos, a young person recently won the outstanding community service award to the United States for his efforts for young people to be recognized for their accomplishments.

In cases of community service among youth, the type of service performed is at times similar to that performed by people convicted of crimes. It can also entail other types of service. For example, a Boy Scout may undertake improvement projects - such as repairing a structure.

When this form of community service is used, it is often a requirement of a youth organization - the Scouting organization would require it for a Scout to advance to the next rank. For high school students, it is often a requirement for a student to advance to the next grade level or graduate from high school to perform a certain number of hours of service.

The Highest rank of scouting in the Boy Scouts of America, Eagle Scout , requires each scout to prepare their own service project and lead it in their community. The highest award in girl scouting, the Girl Scout Gold Award, involves setting up a similar service project.

Community Service is also used by college-bound high school seniors as a way of attracting colleges to accept them. Though technically not a requirement for acceptance for that specific college, most colleges generally use community service as an unofficial college requirement for acceptance, though some colleges prefer work experience over community service. The best overall community service hours is generally around 300 hours or more. Some colleges also require their own students by volunteering specific number of hours to graduate and get a degree.

Service learning is the deliberate connection of community service to stated learning goals. A common misconception among educators, youth workers, and young people is the notion that service learning can be assigned. Several experts attest to the necessity of engaging youth in deliberating, planning, implementing, and reflecting on their community service, thereby sustaining high quality service learning. This is intended to make community service an effective learning tool.

The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) at the University of Maryland, College Park, researches young people and their community service. CIRCLE analyzes trends in community service/volunteering over time and by subgroups, such as sex, race and ethnicity, etc.

Alternative sentencing

In this form of community service, convicted individuals are required to perform charitable services either entirely or partly in lieu of other judicial remedies and penalties.

For instance, a fine may be reduced in exchange for a prescribed number of hours of community service. In some cases, the subject may be able to choose their community service, which then must be documented by credible agencies, or they may be ordered by the judge to perform certain services or work for certain agencies.

Sometimes the sentencing is specifically targeted to the subject's transgression. Examples of this may range from sentencing a litterer to pick up litter along the highway, to a drunk driver being required to appear before school groups to explain why drunk driving is a crime and an ethical breach.

The philosophy behind alternative sentencing is at least partially that providing services that benefit society is a more constructive way to punish perpetrators. It is also thought to be a way to introduce the idea of ethical action into the value of the perpetrator.

Community service is only one of a variety of alternative sentencing techniques designed to be more effective at reforming perpetrators, to reduce recidivism, to benefit society, to help people, and to reduce the overall cost to society of sentencing criminals. Other alternatives include home-based incarceration, targeted payback of funds to victims, and drug addiction treatment rather than imprisonment.

In Europe, community service is usually an alternative to imprisonment. In the United Kingdom, community service is now officially referred to by the Home Office as the less euphemistic "compulsory unpaid work." link

High school graduation

In many educational jurisdictions, a certain number of hours of community service is required to graduate from high school. In Washington State, for example, students must complete 60 hours of community service to receive a high school diploma. Some Washington school districts, including Seattle Public Schools, have differentiated between community service and "service learning," requiring students to demonstrate that their work has contributed to their education.[1] If a student in high school is taking an avid course, community service is required. Some students do it for fun, but for others, it is a requirement.

Some have complained that students taking AP and honors courses may have trouble completing their school's service requirements, due to the amount of homework assigned in advanced courses.^{[citation needed]}

The State of Maryland requires 75 hours of community service for graduation. At least 60 of those hours must be completed before the student can graduate.

In Robert F. Kennedy High School (Queens, NY) community service is also a requirement. Students (sophomore-senior) must accomplish 200 hours of community service before being allowed to graduate.

Condition of participation

Contribution of service is a condition of enrollment in some programs. Most commonly, parents may be required to serve for their child to be enrolled in a school or sports team.

Corporate social responsibility

Some employers involve their staff in some kind of community service programming. This may be completely voluntary or a condition of employment, or anything in between.

See Also

• Volunteer
• Volunteerism
• Non-Profit Franchise
• Volunteer Vacation

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