Community service

Community service is unpaid work performed by a person or group of people for the benefit and betterment of their community. In many cases, people doing community service are compensated in other ways, such as getting a lunch for free. In many countries, there are programs to incite people to do community service. In some cases, it is possible to replace a criminal justice sanctions with community service. There may also be school or class requirements. Obtaining certain benefits may be linked to doing some form of community service. For all these reasons, it is distinct from volunteering.

Background

service is a non-paying job performed by one person or a group of people for the benefit of their community or its institutions. Community service is distinct from volunteering, since it is not always performed on a voluntary basis and may be performed for a variety of reasons, including:

Required by a government as a part of citizenship requirements, like the mandatory "Hand and hitch-up services" for some municipalities in Austria and Germany, or generally in lieu of military service or for civil conscription services.
Required as a substitution of, or in addition to, other criminal justice sanctions – when performed for this reason it may also be referred to as community payback or compensatory service.
Mandated by schools to meet the requirements of a class, such as in the case of service-learning or to meet the requirements of graduating as class valedictorian.
As an workfare obligation, as condition of the receipt of social and financial benefits, see Workfare in the United Kingdom
In Sweden it is a suspended sentence called "samhällstjänst".

Community service and volunteerism are supported and encouraged across the world, influenced by a mix of personal, societal, and cultural factors. Research shows that individual traits like personality and religiosity, combined with organizational settings, play a significant role in fostering long-term volunteerism. Different methods to encourage volunteering can result in volunteers motivated by their own interests or a desire to help others, suggesting the importance of promoting community engagement and altruism for sustained involvement. A study spanning 21 countries linked economic development, education, cultural values, and political systems to higher rates of formal volunteering, indicating a global perspective on volunteer engagement. Student volunteering, particularly in Western English-speaking countries, is driven by altruistic and career-oriented motivations, highlighting a strong culture of volunteerism among young people. Moreover, the motivation to volunteer varies with cultural values across different regions, and is shaped by societal expectations and cultural norms.

Reasons

Educational community service

Secondary education

Some educational jurisdictions in the United States require students to perform community service hours to graduate from high school. In some high schools in Washington, for example, students must finish 200 hours of community service to get a diploma. Some school districts in Washington, including Seattle Public Schools, differentiate between community service and "service learning", requiring students to demonstrate that their work has contributed to their education. If a student in high school is taking an Advancement Via Individual Determination course, community service is often needed. Whether American public schools could require volunteer hours for high school graduation was challenged in Immediato v. Rye Neck School District, but the court found no violation.
Many other high schools do not require community service hours for graduation, but still see an impressive number of students get involved in their communities. For example, in Palo Alto, California, students at Palo Alto High School log about 45,000 hours of community service every year. As a result, the school's College and Career Center awards 250–300 students the President's Volunteer Service Award every year for their hard work.
Starting in 2010, Danish high school students receive a special diploma if they complete at least 20 hours of voluntary work.
The International Baccalaureate program formerly required 50 hours of community service, together with a written reflection on the service performed, to fulfill the requirement of 150 hours of CAS and receive an IB diploma.

Higher education

Though not technically considered a requirement, many colleges include community service as an unofficial requirement for acceptance. However, some colleges prefer work experience over community service, and some require that their students also continue community service for some specific number of hours to graduate. Some schools also offer unique "community service" courses, awarding credit to students who complete a certain number of community service hours. Some academic honor societies, along with some fraternities and sororities in North America, require community service to join and others require each member to continue doing community service.
Many student organizations exist for the purpose of community service, the largest of which is Alpha Phi Omega. Community service projects are also done by sororities and fraternities.
Beginning in the 1980s, colleges began using service-learning as a pedagogy. A partnership of college presidents began in 1985 with the initiative of boosting community service in their colleges. This alliance called Campus Compact, led the way for many other schools to adopt service-learning courses and activities.
Service-learning courses vary widely in time span, quality, and in the balance of "service" and "learning" stressed in the course. A typical service-learning course, however, has these factors in common:

A service component where the student spends time serving in the community meeting actual needs
A learning component where students seek out or are taught information—often both interpersonal and academic—that they integrate into their service
A reflection component that ties service and learning together

Reflection is sometimes symbolized by the hyphen in the term "service-learning" to indicate that it has a central role in learning by serving. Reflection is simply a scheduled consideration of one's own experiences and thoughts. This can take many forms, including journals, blogs, and discussions.
Service-learning courses present learning the material in context, meaning that students often learn effectively and tend to apply what was learned. As the book Where's the Learning in Service-Learning? notes, "Students engaged in service-learning are engaged in authentic situations; they get to know real people whose lives are affected by these issues... As a result, they have lots of questions—real questions that they want to have answered." Thus, students become interested and motivated to learn the materials to resolve their questions.
Community service learning strives to connect or re-connect students with serving their community after they finish their course. It creates a bridge for the lack of community service found among college-age people in the United States.

Community service-learning

The one serving may be able to take something away from the experience and be able to use any newfound knowledge or interpersonal discoveries to improve their future servitude and the people around them. To gain the most from community service requires balancing learning with serving. Learning and serving at the same time improves a student's community while teaching life lessons and building character.
Community service-learning is "about leadership development as well as traditional information and skill acquisition". Therefore, the combination of people doing service and learning at the same time teaches them how to be effective and how to be effective regarding what is important to them. It can improve their overall experience and application opportunities they gain from it. By adding service to learning, and balancing the two, community service can become more than just the act of serving. The goal of service-learning is to achieve large change through small actions. By being a classroom, a hands-on learning experience, and an opportunity to change the community, people are able to not only serve, but impact themselves as well.

Definition

According to Fayetteville State University, "service learning is a process of involving students in community service activities combined with facilitated means for applying the experience to their academic and personal development. It is a form of experiential education aimed at enhancing and enriching student learning in course material. When compared to other forms of experiential learning like internships and cooperative education, it is similar in that it is student-centered, hands-on and directly applicable to the curriculum."
Professor Freddy Cardoza defines community service-learning as "a pedagogy that has few lectures, and is a more interactive hands on educational strategy which provides students with instruction while leading them through meaningful community service experiences and engaging them in personal reflection on those experiences in order to build character and to teach problem-solving skills and civic responsibility." Cardoza stressed that it was important for a student take some time and reflect on what they are experiencing, seeing, doing, and what problems they are encountering and how they are going to apply what they have been learning to solve these problems. In other words, service-learning aims to link the personal and interpersonal development with cognitive development, as well as equipping the student with critical knowledge to help them understand the world.
Character.org defines service-learning as "different than community service in several key ways. Service learning includes student leadership, reflective and academic components, and chances for celebration once the service activity has been successfully completed. Students reflect on community needs, ways to help, and once their service has been completed, they can internalise how their efforts have helped, while learning more about academics such as geography, math, or science."