Finding Community Service To Fulfill a Court-Order or School Obligation
credits and disclaimer and Why should you trust the information on this web page?
credits and disclaimer and Why should you trust the information on this web page?
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. This advice also might help you turn this experience from a "have to" into a "want to", into something that will benefit YOU.
Note that there is NO charge for the advice on this page, and the
opportunities recommended do NOT charge volunteers for
participating. Part of the reason I offer this page is because of
many unscrupulous web sites out there offering documentation for
community service for a large fee or a "donation." That's
unethical at best and illegal at worst. More on that later.
And if you think this page is going to help you get 80 hours by
the end of this week - no, it's not. You shouldn't have waited so
long to start doing your hours.
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 can also be done as a condition of probation. Community service is considered restitution by an offender through helping his or her community. The service means actions, activity, engagement -- doing something that needs to be done and that helps the community or a cause.
Community service as a requirement of graduation from school is a practice that comes from the idea that young people should understand that they have obligations as citizens or residents of an area to be a part of the community: to know at least some of its challenges and strengths and to be able to work with others in supporting initiatives that are addressing those challenges or building up those strengths. Again, the service means actions, activity, engagement -- doing something that needs to be done and that helps the community or a cause.
Therefore, your mandated community service will need to be done at a registered nonprofit organization or through a government agency, and it will have to be approved by the court or your probation officer or school before you begin it.
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 your service is going to be accepted before you begin working with such an organization.
You may be permitted to volunteer with a government agency, such as a public school, a city-sponsored anti-drug program, a state park or a national park, a community court, a jail or prison, etc. Check with your probation officer, your court liaison, a teacher at your school, or whomever has assigned you with community service before you begin to make sure they will accept such service.
You may also be permitted to volunteer with a for-profit company
if that company provides services to the community and involves
volunteers, such as a for-profit hospital, a for-profit hospice, a
for-profit home for people with intellectual disabilities or a
for-profit retirement community (but not a restaurant, a
motorcycle shop, a computer store, a pet store, 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 a company. The
reality is that they are going to prefer you to help at a
registered nonprofit organization.
There are many web sites and apps where you can
find places to volunteer in your community in the USA, and for
many other countries have such web sites as well, for their local
residents to volunteer. Here is a list volunteer centers / volunteer
matching sites and apps in various countries.
There are posts to the volunteer subreddit
about current calls for volunteers, both onsite and online
opportunities. This
link
goes directly to just the posts marked as "opportunities."
You can also look at Guidestar.org, a database of all registered nonprofit organizations in the USA; you can look up all the nonprofits in your zip code, or by other criteria (but you will have to call or email any organization that looks interesting to see if they have volunteering opportunities).
You can find every registered nonprofit in your zip code using Guidestar; if a nonprofit
sounds interesting to you, type its name into Google, look at its web site to
see what opportunities they have.
Here's one of the simplest ways to find volunteering in your
community: go to Google, Bing, Duck Duck Go or any other search
engine of your choice. Type in the word nonprofit (if you
are in the USA) or charity (if you are in the UK) or NGO
for most other countries, and the city where you are. Then type a
mission that interests you, like help foster children or teach
English
refugees or help refugees or help women domestic
violence or help homeless people or food back,
etc. So, for instance:
Such a search will generate a list of mission-based organizations
in that area that do that work. Click on the link for each, read
their info, if they have a link for volunteering, click on it, and
if they don't, email them and say you are interested in
volunteering with them and would like more information.
Before you sign up to volunteer or express interest in volunteering, read a bit about the organization. Know something about them - that they help children access outdoor activities, for instance. Or that they build houses. Or that they help refugees with housing. And be ready to say why you have signed up for whatever role you have signed up for. It can be as simple as, "I want to help others, I have a really busy schedule, this seems to fit my schedule best" or "I am just curious to see how your organization works" or "I'm bored and thought this would be a great way to meet people."
Check the organization's web site BEFORE you call, to see if the site provides information about volunteering. You may be able to read about all of the volunteering activities at the organization on the site and to apply to volunteer online. If you do call the organization, present yourself well on the phone. You may want to rehearse what you want to say ("Hello. I wanted to know if your organization involves volunteers? I could not find information on your web site about this."). If you send an email, be sure to spell check it, and it's helpful if you can say what kind of volunteering opportunities you are looking for (I'd like to work with staff in your office or I'd like to do something outside).
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 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 or that helps to register voters might be allowed while volunteering for a political party probably will 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 your documentation requirements.
Whether it's a gala, a fundraising walk, an orientation for new volunteers, an art opening, a theater production, a staff training, a grand opening, whatever, nonprofits and charities have a LOT of events and they need volunteers to help at those events. They often won't recruit volunteers specifically for those events, but if you write the nonprofit and say, "Hey, I saw that you are having a half day training for new volunteers, I'd love to help, as a volunteer, just at that event", you very likely will get to volunteer that day.
When you volunteer at an event, you help with setting up the room (tables and chairs), or taking down the room, or setting up the food, or cleaning up the food, or handing out materials, or helping check in folks, and maybe even taking photos.
How do you find events where you can volunteer?
Go to Facebook and look at events in your area. They are under the "events" tab.
Go to Google, Bing, Duck Duck Go, whatever, and type in the name of your city and the word nonprofit, and then look at the different web sites of the nonprofits and see what events they have coming up.
Look at your local newspaper, if you still have one.
Go to Google, Bing, Duck Duck Go, whatever, and type in the word events and the name of your city and see which are nonprofit events.
Go to the subreddit for your community or city and scroll through and see what events people have been posting about and if any are by nonprofits.
For theater and dance companies, go look at their web sites and see if they have performances soon, even this weekend.
Always check out nonprofit theaters and dance companies,
nonprofit farmer's markets, cultural centers and the local Habitat
for Humanity for your area - their web site or social media
account will list events they are having, and you can contact them
and offer to volunteer as directed above.
Most farmer's markets are run by nonprofit organizations. Many of these markets need help with setting up the market, taking down the market, and the evening before the market, putting together food boxes for subscribers to their CSA (community supported agriculture) programs. Helping with all these tasks in just one week can get you, at minimum, 8 hours of service, and you often can contact these organizations with just 24 hours notice to help.
Know exactly when the event is, where it is, and how you will get
there before you write the nonprofit. When you write, say which
event it is you are interested in helping with. Be ready to be
there at least 15 minutes prior to the event starting (most will
want you there 30 minutes before). If you can only volunteer for
two hours, say so, and graciously accept a "no" if they can't
involve you.
Nonprofit theaters, community theaters, dance companies, university theater and dance departments, and performing arts centers are often in need of ushers in the evenings and on weekends for performances; you not only get volunteer hours, you get into a show for free! Call or email these organizations to see if they need volunteer ushers for upcoming performances, and ask if you could sign up to help. Local, non-professional/amateur theater companies also welcome volunteer in a variety of roles, from selling tickets to building sets to selling drinks at intermission to sewing costumes to performing on stage.
It is sometimes difficult to sign up to volunteer for a Habitat
for Humanity house build and get to participate quickly - many
Habitat chapters have waiting lists, sometimes of a few months.
However, not all - and the only way to know if you can get
involved in a house build is to check out your local Habitat
affiliate and ask, or look at their web site. Many Habitat
affiliates allow people from outside the service area to
volunteer, so if your nearest affiliate is all booked up, but the
one in the county next door isn't, you will probably be allowed to
volunteer. The web site for each affiliate will have complete info
and you do NOT have to have ANY construction experience to
participate!
Many Habitat for Humanity affiliates operate a ReStore:
a store that sells used furniture and tools, leftover construction
items and other materials and items, with sales going towards
helping to fund affordable housing, house repairs for US military
veterans, classes in home ownership and more. These ReStores need
volunteers to help carry items from vehicles into the warehouse,
to cleanup items, to help keep the showroom beautiful and
inviting, to help with marketing, especially online, and more.
Volunteers are needed to take photos of items at the ReStore for
online marketing, photos at special events and home builds that
the Habitat affiliate can use on its web site and in social media,
volunteers to scan archival material (old newspaper articles,
prints of photos, etc.), and more. If you are interested in
volunteering, contact the affiliate and be clear about what it is
you are interested in doing as a volunteer. Some affiliates will
let you volunteer just one day.
It is NOT easy to volunteer with animals, where you will
actually interact with animals. There are many reasons for this. I
have a separate page for those who want to volunteer with
animals or in support of animal-related causes. But if
you just want to help at events or with adminsitrative tasks
(answering the phone, for instance), just find animal shelters and
animal rescues in your area and call them and offer.
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.
This web page provides complete information about volunteering online. It has a list of legitimate places to volunteer online, with legitimate nonprofits.
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.
An organization has every right to fire you / let you go as a
volunteer, no matter how urgently you need to complete your
community service. They are under no obligation to keep you --
especially if you have missed shifts, violated policies, been
chronically late, play on your phone instead of working, lie, etc.
No organization is under any obligation to involve you as a volunteer, no matter how much you need those community service hours, and they can fire you immediately. You may be under more scrutiny because the organization knows you are performing this volunteer (unpaid) service because you have to, as compelled by a court.
If you are at all worried about finding or finishing your community service hours on time, then buy a paper notebook or make a spreadsheet, and capture the name of every organization you call or sign up with to express interest in volunteering, the date you contacted the organization, date you talked with the organization (if at all), and, if the organization turned you down to volunteer, information on their reasoning. At the time you have to provide documentation on your volunteering, present this documentation that shows all that you did to find volunteering activities; it should be a list of at least 50 organizations. Your teacher or probation officer or judge may or may not give you an extension to get your hours, but they most certainly will NOT if you don't have this documentation ready to share with them.
Take your service seriously. Be a dependable volunteer who is polite, follows the rules, shows up on time, and takes pride in getting tasks done appropriately and on time. If you miss shifts, violate policies, seem to not be taking tasks seriously, are goofing off, are unpleasant, are late, etc., you will probably be dismissed - and, no, the court won't help you.Do NOT pay any organization that says they will give you documentation regarding completed community service in exchange for a fee or a "donation," without your having to actually do any volunteering. Do not pay any organization that has a web site offering to help you complete court-ordered community service but that does not have a nonprofit ID number posted on its web site, a list of its board of directors (full names), a list of staff (full names), a physical mailing address, and that says you get the community service in exchange for a donation. Do not pay any organization that says it is a nonprofit but is not listed at Guidestar. Do not pay any organization that posts ads on Craigslist saying they can help you get documentation for court-ordered community service. These companies are unethical at best and illegal at worst (at least one person has been arrested and convicted for running such a scam).
When you contact an organization to inquire about service hours, 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." That is not lying - you will tell the organization about your community service obligation at a far more appropriate time. 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. Once you find out about volunteering at the organization, and if you are interested in that volunteering, then you say, "I will need a letter by a certain date (and provide that date) that says how many hours I have volunteered at the organization, what I did as a volunteer, etc. I have to provide this to my probation officer/the judge in charge of my case/my teacher at such-and-such highschool/university, etc. Will you be able to provide that?" If they say yes, ask how your hours of service will be tracked - you may be asked to track these hours yourself.
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 - always be truthful about why you need community service hours. But you can also say something about the organization's work that you like ("I care about the environment, I think the arts are important, etc."). 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.
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). If your service is court-ordered or a part of your probation, you must be up-front in your interview and on your volunteering application about your conviction.
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. Tell the organization from the very
beginning that you will need a letter stating how many hours your
contributed to the organization, the start date of your service,
the end date of your service, and a summary of what kind of
service you provided.
If the organization wants you to track your days and hours yourself, 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.
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 WEEKS 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 almost always be counted as a part of your community service time if you complete at least a few hours of volunteering.
If you are volunteering as a part of court-ordered community service, have at least two references who are NOT family members and could attest to the positive aspects of your character. You will need the full names, the phone numbers, the email addresses and the physical addresses for these people, ready to write on any volunteer application. These references should be former or current employers, former or current co-workers at a job, a leader at your community of faith (priest, preacher, elder, Imam, head cleric, choir leader, Pujari, etc.), a neighbor you have done work for, someone at another organization you have volunteered for, etc. Your reference could even be your lawyer or your probation officer, or even a policy officer who believes you deserve a second chance.
Is It Community Service Or Volunteering?
It's both! When you perform legitimate community service with a
legitimate organization, that's also volunteering. 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.
There are an ever evolving cavalcade of companies, some nonprofit, some for-profit, that claim if you pay them a fee, or if you will donate a certain amount of money to them, they will provide you with a letter for the court, your probation officer, a school, etc., saying you have performed a certain number of community service hours. I've blogged about some of them here. One of the companies even charges a monthly fee for users to track and report their community service hours - something anyone can do for free on a shared Google spreadsheet.
If you find such an organization online and it's a for-profit company, then, were it legitimate (and I'm convinced none are), you should be able to find on their web site:
How to Find Volunteering Opportunities, a resource for adults who want to volunteer
Advice for Volunteer Groups / Group Volunteering.
Volunteering with organizations that help animals and wildlife.
Volunteering on Public Lands in the USA (national parks, national forests, state parks, wetlands, etc.)
How to Make a Difference Internationally/Globally/in Another Country Without Going Abroad
Fund Raising For a Cause or Organization
Using Your Business Skills for Good - Volunteering Your Business Management Skills, to help people starting or running small businesses / micro enterprises, to help people building businesses in high-poverty areas, and to help people entering or re-entering the work force.
Creating or Holding a Successful Community Event or Fund Raising Event.
Advice for family volunteering - volunteering by families with children and, related, advice for teaching children compassion & understanding instead of pity with regard to poverty.
Home-Based (in your own home) Volunteering Where Your Service is NOT via a Computer or the Internet (at least not to actually DO the volunteering service, but you may need to report your work online).
Ideas for Leadership
Volunteering Activities
These are more than just do-it-yourself volunteering - these are
ideas to create or lead a sustainable, lasting benefit to a
community, recruiting others to help and to have a leadership
role as a volunteer. These can also be activities for the Girl
Scouts Gold Award, the Duke of Edinburgh's Award (U.K.), a
mitzvah project, or even scholarship consideration.
Ideas for Creating Your Own Volunteering Activity.
How to complain about your volunteering experience.
Donating Things Instead of Cash or Time (In-Kind Contributions)
Group Volunteering for Atheist and Secular Volunteers
Helping People Address Their Problems
with Plastic
How to mobilize a community to clean up plastic bottles, plastic
bags and other plastic waste from their environment, and how to
reduce their use of such items in the future
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)
Credits & Copyright
Please contact me for permission to reprint, present or distribute these materials.
Disclaimer
Any activity, in-person or online, incurs risk. The author assumes
no responsibility for the use of information contained within this
document. Use this information at your own risk. The page author
makes no warranty that the information provided here will meet
your requirements. The page author makes no warranty as to what
may happen as a result of the use of the information on this page
or any online resource to which it leads.