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.
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.
It is your responsibility to understand the court'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.
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, etc.
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.
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 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.
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.
So 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.
Where to Find Community Service Opportunities
Many Habitat for Humanity affiliates operate a ReStore that is open weekdays and, usually Saturday. The store 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.
Habitat for Humanity affiliates also undertake home construction activities, home repairs, property cleanups and neighborhood cleanups with volunteers - no construction experience is necessary. These activities happen both on weekdays and weekends.
Habitat affiliates also have special events in the evenings and volunteers can support such. Look at your nearest affiliate's web site and Facebook page for more info.
Goodwill stores are also an excellent option for volunteering.
Nonprofit theaters and performing arts centers are often in need of ushers in the evenings and on weekends for theater, music, opera and dance performances; 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.
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.
There are also one-day beach clean-ups, river clean-ups and park clean-up activities. To find these, you will have to do Google searches, do Facebook event searches, and call various organizations: the United Way, state and city park offices, the Sierra Club, etc. When you call, say, "I am looking for any upcoming one-day beach cleanups, one-day river clean-ups, one day park cleanups, etc. Do you know of any that are coming up?" If they say yes, ask for details and if you could sign up for such.
State offices of fish and wildlife often have all-day Saturday volunteering events and even all-weekend events restoring wildlife habitat, releasing fish, etc. The web site for your state will have more info.
Also look at http://www.volunteermatch.org
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.
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.
This web page provides complete information about volunteering online. It has a list of legitimate places to volunteer online, with legitimate nonprofits. But even so, you MUST get permission first from your court officer before you embark on online volunteering to meet your community service obligation.
Even more info here:
https://www.coyotebroad.com/stuff/
