court ordered community service on resume

When and How to List Volunteer Work on a Resume

Volunteer work can show employers you're actively using your skills or adopting new ones.

How to List Volunteer Work on a Resume

Key Takeaways:

• Including volunteer work on your resume can complement your experience, highlight your skill set and give employers a sense of your values.
• For those without extensive work experience or aiming to switch careers, volunteer work can highlight transferable skills.
• Consider listing volunteer work under the "experience" section of your resume or adding a dedicated volunteering section near the top.

Volunteer work may not hold the same weight as a paid position on a resume, but depending on the duties and how you cast the experience, it could be well worth including. If you don't have extensive work experience, volunteer work can also showcase your skill set and help employers get a sense of your values.

Pros of Listing Volunteer Work on Your Resume

Listing volunteer work on a resume can showcase your soft skills and transferable skills, which can help employers see you in a position even if you don't have extensive work experience. This is especially helpful if you are a recent graduate or are making a career change . For example, many volunteer work positions require teamwork, communication and leadership skills, which are valuable in a wide range of industries.

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Listing your volunteer work can also help a hiring manager get a sense of your values and interests outside of work, adding depth to your personal brand. If you have been laid off or have gaps in your employment history, including volunteer work can show a hiring manager that you are using your time productively while job searching.

Including your volunteer work on your resume is important if you work in an industry or sector that encourages volunteer work , such as health care, academia or nonprofit. Volunteering demonstrates your commitment to the industry's values and shows how you are developing your skill set in real-world situations.

When You Shouldn't List Volunteer Work on Your Resume

If you are a mid-career professional and already have a lot of relevant work experience, you can be more strategic with your resume. If your work experience already showcases your skills and your other resume sections are robust, it may not be worthwhile to make room to include volunteer work. Also, consider how long ago you volunteered. If it was many years ago, the volunteer experience may be stale and not worth including.

How to List Volunteer Work on Your Resume

If you are considering including volunteer work on your resume, first determine how it is relevant to the position you are applying for and what skills you aim to highlight. If asked to explain your volunteer work in an interview, would you be able to talk about it as if it had been a previous job?

If your volunteer work is relevant to the job, you may want to include it under the professional or work experience sections on your resume. Use the same formatting as your other work experience and highlight any measurable accomplishments, just as you would a regular job.

Avoid listing your volunteer experience on a resume in the following example:

• VOLUNTEER WORK Volunteer Doctor: Doctors Without Borders

Instead, list your relevant volunteer work experience as you would list a regular job:

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Director of Marketing Community Service Organization: 2019-2023 Led marketing and communications efforts with Community Service Organization, which brings together community members, city government leaders, business professionals and nonprofit organizations in Atlanta. Executed a successful marketing campaign for the 2023 annual fundraising event, resulting in a 30% increase in attendance and 10% increase in fundraising.

If your volunteer work isn't relevant to the job but highlights your dedication to your community or interests outside of work, consider including it on your resume under an additional information section or adding a section exclusively for volunteer work.

AWARDS, VOLUNTEER WORK, ASSOCIATIONS

Spanish Translator Translators Without Borders: 2017-present Use Spanish language skills to assist in the translation of 20 medical documents monthly to serve those who otherwise can't afford this service.

If you are a recent grad without much work experience, you may want to highlight your volunteer experience on a resume. Consider listing internships , leadership positions in a student organization and mentoring programs where you served others. Again, try to measure accomplishments in those roles, not just list the tasks you performed. Here is an example:

• RELEVANT EXPERIENCE Vice President University of Georgia Agricultural Club: 2021-2023 Assisted in planning in-person and virtual events for the benefit of the local agricultural community. Efforts resulted in more efficient practices and a 15% increase in donations.

If you are changing careers and don't have a lot of work experience that highlights your transferable skills, consider adding a volunteer work section near the top of the page. This will ensure that the hiring manager doesn't miss that section and can see the connection between your volunteer work and the duties of the position you're applying for.

• VOLUNTEER WORK EXPERIENCE Marketing Lead Volunteer Organization Name, 2019-2023 Created marketing program for Volunteer Organization Name by obtaining $60K+ grant funding and engaging volunteers.

Remember to Tailor Your Resume

It's important to tailor your resume to the job opening. You may find that it makes sense to include your volunteer work for one job, but it doesn't make sense to include it for another. For example, some organizations may have a company culture of giving back to the community, and you can highlight that you fit in with that culture by including your volunteer work.

Keep a master copy of your resume with all of your work and volunteer experience so you can customize it to each job posting. Use keywords from the posting as well as your research about the company to help you determine which work and volunteer work experiences best highlight that you are an ideal candidate for the position.

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Jamela Adam June 14, 2024

Tags: careers , money , volunteering , Applying , Company Culture

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How To Effectively List Community Service On Your Resume

Community service can be a great addition to an entry-level or senior resume. Dive into hiring manager insights on how, why, and where to effectively list community service on your resume.

a year ago   •   6 min read

Community service can be a golden ticket, especially entry-level candidates or those transitioning sectors. It not only showcases your dedication and skills but also reflects your commitment to positive change. But is it always appropriate to include on your resume?

In general, you should only include community service on your resume if you're an entry-level candidate with limited paid experience or if the community service is directly relevant to the job you’re applying for. Otherwise, it's best to leave it off.

In this article, we will discuss how to determine if community service is a good addition to your resume, the best ways to describe community service while highlighting transferable skills, and where to list community service on your resume.

The difference between “community service” and “volunteering”

While the terms “community service” and “volunteering” can be used interchangeably, there is technically a difference between the two.

While volunteering encompasses any voluntary unpaid work, community service specifically describes volunteering performed to help one's community. Community service can be part of an academic accomplishment, a scouting or guiding program, or a government requirement, such as for citizenship or residency. So, while community service is almost always volunteering, volunteering is not always community service.

That being said, when writing your resume, it is acceptable to use the term community service or volunteering to describe any unpaid work experience, so feel free to choose whichever term best describes the focus of your work.

If you want to check that your community service experience is correctly structured on your resume, upload it to the tool below . It'll let you know if you have effectively highlighted your relevant achievements and transferable skills.

Should you include community service on your resume?

Community service is not a mandatory requirement for any resume. Whether it fits on your resume will depend on what other paid experience you have and its relevance to your intended industry.

Consider these four questions when deciding whether or not to include community service on your resume.

Are the skills you gained relevant to your industry?

Community service is an excellent addition to your resume when your experience is directly related to the job you're applying for. To determine if your experience is relevant, consider the key responsibilities of the new position and if any of these keywords overlap with your volunteering work. This can include hard skills , such as experience with industry-specific software and tools, and soft skills, like leadership, mentoring, and project management.

For example, if you are applying for a role in software development, community service work at your local library is likely irrelevant, but managing a tech project for a local charity would be highly relevant.

To check if your community experience is relevant to your application, use our Targeted Resume Tool to scan your resume for relevant keywords and receive personalized feedback on how to tailor your resume to a specific job.

You can also use the skills search tool below to get a list of skills relevant to the job you're applying for.

How much paid work experience do you have?

For entry-level job seekers with little or no paid work experience, including community service on your resume is a great way to showcase hard and soft skills . Choose community service projects related to your desired field, and describe your work the same as you would a paid role.

If you have ample paid work experience, including community service might clutter your resume. In this case, it is better to leave community service off your resume in favor of paid experience.

How long is your resume?

The optimal length for your resume is 1-2 pages ; the shorter, the better. If your resume is already close to 2 pages and you're struggling to cut it down, you can likely remove your community service to save space for higher-priority information, like work experience, skills , qualifications, and education .

How long ago was your community service?

If your community service was over ten years ago, it holds less weight to potential employers than more recent experiences and can likely be removed. The same is true for outdated paid roles, qualifications, and education. A good rule of thumb is to keep everything on your resume within the last 10-15 years.

How to list community service on your resume

List your job title as “Community Service Volunteer,” or use a traditional job title followed by “Community Service Volunteer.” Include the name of the organization and the dates (month and year) you volunteered. You can include if your work was part-time or full-time if you like, but it's not necessary.

For example:

Community Service Volunteer- St. James Public Library: Jan- Nov 2022

When describing your experience, list accomplishments instead of responsibilities and present it in bullet point format to make your resume easy to scan. Expand on your skills using specific examples, and use numbers and metrics to show the impact of your work and quantify your achievements . Start your bullet points with a strong action verb , such as “planned,” “created,” or “organized,” to make your statements memorable.

• Planned and implemented five community service events with 40+ attendees each • Organized a donation event for St. James Public Library that secured $7,000 for renovating the main reading room

Where to include community service on your resume

Your community service can fit into multiple sections of your resume, depending on how much paid experience you have and its relevance to your application.

In your Work Experience section

If your community service is highly relevant to your application or you lack traditional paid experience, list it in your work experience section . As with conventional work experience, list your community service in reverse chronological order (most recent first) and use 3-6 bullet point accomplishments to describe the position.

Here is an example of how to list community service under work experience. Note how this candidate titled this section Work and Community Experience to combine both their paid and unpaid experience.

In a dedicated Community Service section

If you have two or more community service roles to highlight on your resume, you can create a dedicated community service section titled Community Service Experience or Community Service and Volunteering. Keep this section brief by listing only 1-2 bullet points for each position, as shown in the example below.

In an Additional Information section

If you want to include your community service but don't have much space, consider including it in an Additional Information section. As shown below, this allows you to include your job title, employer, and the dates of your volunteer work but doesn't elaborate on your skills or accomplishments within the role. Use this option if you're including your community service to show a personal interest or extracurricular achievement rather than hard skills or work experience.

Top tips for entry-level candidates

For entry-level candidates who lack more extensive paid experience, expand your resume by listing your community service under work experience. Highlight relevant transferable skills as well as hard technical skills. Transferable skills might not be from a directly related field but showcase competitive skills relevant to multiple industries.

For example, if you are applying for an entry-level project management position and have community service experience at an animal shelter, list your experience managing feeding schedules or organizing fundraising events. If you are applying for a design position with the same experience, focus on a poster you created for the shelter and the industry-specific tools you used to design it.

Including community service on senior-level resumes

While most senior candidates will have more than enough paid experience to populate their resume, you can still consider using relevant community service to explain a significant gap in your resume. This can highlight the skills and knowledge you gained during a sabbatical or break from work, and frame your time off work in a positive and professional light. Focus on the skills you improved, the projects you were involved in, and your work's positive impact on the community.

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Court-Ordered Community Service: Volunteers or Prison Labor?

Court-ordered volunteers perform a wide variety of roles in nonprofits. Susan Ellis discusses when to accept them, and how to do it right.

Each year, hundreds of thousands of court-ordered community service workers are placed in nonprofits to fulfill their sentences.

Although the image is typically one of a teenager sentenced to picking up litter, court-ordered volunteers perform a wide variety of roles in nonprofits. The very smart Susan Ellis discusses why and why not to accept such volunteers, and how to do it right.

You’ve just been caught embezzling from the auto body shop where you work as a bookkeeper. You’re dreading having to do jail time, but it’s your first offense, so maybe they’ll go easy on you. Your attorney surprises you by suggesting that you ask the judge to sentence you to 500 hours of community service instead of 10 days in the county jail. Should you do it?

A finance director at a nonprofit that helps low-income women get jobs, gets a call from the volunteer center. The pitch: you’ll get a volunteer, former-embezzler bookkeeper for 500 hours, no pay required, but you’ll have to complete paperwork every week for her probation officer. Should you say yes?

(See the end of the article for the true-life answer.)

Alternative sentencing

For the last 30 years, courts have experimented with “alternative sentencing.” An offender is given the option of completing a set number of hours of unpaid work in a nonprofit organization in lieu of a fine or spending time in prison, or as an adjunct to probation or parole.

Courts like alternative sentencing because it can reduce the costs of incarceration and supervision of nonviolent offenders, benefit the community, and perhaps help teach the offender about ethical behavior.

Some nonprofits are delighted at the opportunity to get more help. Others recoil at the very notion. And everyone has an opinion on whether or not such mandated workers are truly “volunteers.” In fact, some courts have questioned whether requiring unpaid service is “involuntary servitude” (it is not). A Canadian colleague coined the phrase “voluntolds” to make a point about mandated volunteers.

The courts can order community service but they cannot order a community agency to accept an offender. In the best programs, participants can choose among assignments, so there is a voluntary component. Further, since the nonprofit benefits from the work of court-ordered participants without putting them on the payroll, community service workers are indeed volunteers from the perspective of pay.

Should we accept court-ordered workers?

Are community service programs a source of talent for professional work, a pool of manual laborers, or too risky to have around at all?

There are negative issues to consider:

• Community service participants may see the nonpaid service as punishment, and will be resentful, poor workers
• Some law-abiding volunteers may be offended if court-ordered workers are integrated equally into the volunteer program
• You (the nonprofit) become the legal monitor for compliance with the terms of the sentence, including reporting if the person does not comply (such as being absent)
• Screening and liability questions may be unclear, including whether or not to keep the participants’ referral source confidential.

But these may be outweighed by clear positives:

• The process introduces a whole new group of people to community service/volunteering who can offer new talents and perspectives to the organization
• A surprisingly high percentage of participants continue in their assignments even after the required number of hours is completed
• You can contribute to helping offenders gain self-confidence, good work habits, a positive work experience, good references, and even new skills
• Community service is restitution or restorative justice, allowing people to repay the community for their crimes.

Success with court-ordered workers depends on your organization’s approach. If you create menial, restricted assignments for temporary, unenthusiastic help, that’s what you’ll get. But if you see court-ordered placements as an opportunity to build positive relationships, you will pay attention to each individual’s skills, develop more interesting volunteer roles, and invite further participation.

Motivations for volunteering often mixed

Court-appointed volunteers are not the only volunteers who do so to fulfill external requirements. Students volunteer through service-learning programs in order to graduate from high school and to obtain class credit at middle schools, high schools, and colleges. Scouts, Campfire, and other youth groups require community service, as do many sororities, fraternities, and civic clubs such as the Junior League. And some corporations officially (and unofficially) require employees to give time to the community.

In other words, there are various reasons why all people choose to contribute their time and talents in unpaid service. What matters may not be the motivation deep in their hearts, but how well volunteers perform their work, their attitudes, their dependability, and their commitment.

Volunteers can surprise us. A person who comes with great personal motivation may still turn out to be unreliable. A person who comes with initial resentment for having to be there may turn out to be an extraordinary contributor.

Need policies

If you agree to accept court-referred volunteers, determine what your policy will be regarding these questions:

Will you place any limits on the nature of the offense or on the minimum amount of hours of service? For example, it may not be cost-effective for you to orient and place someone who has less than twenty hours of community service work to do, unless you have a number of short-term projects waiting to be tackled.

• How much do you need to know of the person’s court record before placing him or her? Who in your organization will be told of the person’s sentence and for what reasons?
• How will you handle possible infringements of the placement agreement, should they occur? For example, after how many absences will the probation officer or other court contact be notified?
• Will court-referred workers be assigned to the same positions as other volunteers? How might this affect attitudes towards all volunteers?

The volunteer office in your organization should be the conduit for court-referred workers. These workers are nonsalaried, temporary personnel who require screening, orienting, and so on, just as all other volunteers do. Most importantly, it is the volunteer program manager who is most skilled at interviewing and placing people based on their potential and not always on their resumes. The volunteer program manager may also need to train staff about appropriate behavior with court-ordered volunteers. In the right placement, a community service worker will thrive while providing truly useful help to the organization.

A significant percent of those required to do a minimum number of hours of service remain at their assignments for much longer. So it may be more important whether and why people remain committed to their service than what made them start in the first place.

Do they magically transmute into a “volunteer” at that point? How are they different in the first hour of their voluntary service from the last hour of their requirement?

As always, two questions are paramount: Would you turn away this source of help? Do the potential benefits of welcoming this talent pool outweigh the concerns?

Additional notes:

• For an excellent description of the many varieties of alternative sentencing, as well as the court ruling that exempts community service from consideration as involuntary servitude, click here.
• Energize has several articles on mandated community service available to (paid) subscribers at www.e-volunteerism.com .

End of story:  Blue Avocado editor Jan Masaoka was that finance director, and she supervised two former-embezzler bookkeepers for many months with great success — staff the organization could not otherwise have afforded.

You might also like:

• A Practical Guide to Getting and Keeping Nonprofit Volunteers
• Treasurers of All-Volunteer Organizations: Eight Key Responsibilities
• Volunteering Alone Will Not Save Us
• Up Your Game with Skills-based Volunteering
• Creating a More Robust Volunteer Development Program

You made it to the end! Please share this article!

Let’s help other nonprofit leaders succeed! Consider sharing this article with your friends and colleagues via email or social media.

About the Author

Susan J. Ellis

Susan J. Ellis  is president of  Energize, Inc ., an international training, consulting, and publishing firm specializing in volunteerism. Susan has written 12 books on volunteerism and is known as an engaging speaker and thought-provoking writer. She is co-publisher of the international online journal,  e-Volunteerism , and dean of faculty for the online volunteer management training program, Everyone Ready. She volunteered (without a court order) to write this article for Blue Avocado.

• Susan J. Ellis https://blueavocado.org/author/susan-j-ellis/ What Are the Board's Responsibilities for Volunteers?
• Susan J. Ellis https://blueavocado.org/author/susan-j-ellis/ New Thinking and Talking About Volunteers
• Susan J. Ellis https://blueavocado.org/author/susan-j-ellis/ Gas Rates, Volunteers, and Justice

Articles on Blue Avocado do not provide legal representation or legal advice and should not be used as a substitute for advice or legal counsel. Blue Avocado provides space for the nonprofit sector to express new ideas. The opinions and views expressed in this article are solely those of the authors. They do not purport to reflect or imply the opinions or views of Blue Avocado, its publisher, or affiliated organizations. Blue Avocado, its publisher, and affiliated organizations are not liable for website visitors’ use of the content on Blue Avocado nor for visitors’ decisions about using the Blue Avocado website.

47 thoughts on “ Court-Ordered Community Service: Volunteers or Prison Labor? ”

It’s worth noting that many volunteer centers have chosen not to work with court-ordered community service programs because they believe that such programs are not in line with how they see volunteerism. For most of the large volunteer centers, however, such programs are sources of substantial fees from the courts.

Thank you, Susan, for another intelligent and practical article. Jan

Excellent article. I believe much of the success of a program utilizing court appointed volunteers is the management of the program by the placement agency. As the Director of Volunteers for varied organizations in different geographic areas, I found the program was a success only when it was managed by a professional volunteer center and not having assigned volunteers coming directly from the court system. The Volunteer Center would skillfully screen and place the volunteers based on their skill level and reason for court mandated volunteer hours. Any volunteer coming into our program went through the same screening process and training provided for all incoming volunteers. We would not accept violent offenders and court appointed volunteers were not considered for any educational program that included criminal/sex offender screening.

Utilizing this program brought some of the best and most committed volunteers into our program and many continued to volunteer after their sentence was complete. Granted there were a few volunteers that were uninspired and resentful, but the success rate was no lower than the average drop rate of any volunteer program. Managing the paperwork was well worth some of the quality individuals that came through the program.

As a humorous aside, one of the best volunteers we ever had assigned was a professional volunteer manager from a well known national organization. He had 300 mandatory hours for a DUI conviction and he was an inspired and delightful volunteer.

This is a good point, Anonymous. In fact, my first reaction was that bookkeeping was the LAST thing an embezzler should do! However, my executive director pointed out to me that bookkeeping was what her skills were. Plus we really needed another bookkeeper. We talked to the auditor to check on internal controls and he okayed it.

About a year later, the same auditor introduced me to an attorney friend of his who was representing a CPA with a really big fraud case. The attorney wanted to go to the judge at sentencing and ask for community service time in lieu of jail time. The CPA guy was really desperate and was willing to be an unpaid accountant for whatever it would take. Ultimately the judge did not agree to alternative sentencing and the guy was sentenced to 18 months in prison.

The negatives listed above are so true. I was volunteer coordinator for the restoration of a 17-acre abandoned cemetery. We used Hands-On-Atlanta volunteers and local volunteers, and eventually added community service assignees. It became immediately apparent that managing both mindsets would become an extra task. Regular volunteers would get to work doing what they could with the tools we had available. The CS folks would complain about tool choices, take short cuts, suggest power equipment would be better (we could not afford such) and to some extent made some volunteers nervous and less inclined to return. We tried solving this by having two separate projects so the “goodness of their hearts” folks would be separated, but this required more supervision with no extra volunteer staff to do so. We eventually arranged to have a county probation officer come along and supervise their work, but it was still a constant drone of complaints and very little progress. We ended up ending the CS participation.

If you need the labor from a group such as this, I highly suggest arranging for an independent person such as a county official, duputy, probation officer, etc. to be on-site. It’s much easier, and you are no longer the bad guy for not wanting to be lenient on them or “generous” with their on-paper hours, etc.

The exception to this was individuals with minor offenses needing 40-80 hours of CS. Most of these would fit right in silently with the volunteers, and once they had the hang of it, would even come out on their own on other days to work down their time. (I lived nearby and could check in on them anytime.) The best of these was a guy who didn’t know what poison ivy was and got all into pulling it off a tree while I was away. I was worried he would have problems, but never even had an itch. It turned out he was one of those rare folks immune to it. Needless to say, he spend the rest of his 80 hours removing poison ivy from every tree in the cemetery!

For details on our group or to contact me for details, visit hillcrest.graves.org

I thoroughly enjoyed the story and appreciated the points made here. Thank you, Hillcrest! Jan

When I arrived at my current position, we had not accepted court-ordered volunteers because of past problems. The first person we accepted was a former employee who was vouched for by the current employee he worked with in the past. It worked out well. After that we started tentatively accepting more. We are formal partners with several cities court systems. We do not accept any charges of theft or violence of any kind (I wouldn’t take the bookkeeper). We see many first-offenders for simple possession of a narcotic, underage possession of alcohol, and traffic violations. There have been a few with bad attitudes and we can ask them to leave at any time. But by and large, they have worked out well. Not only have several done more than than their hours, some have even been hired here.

Being in a military town, your heart goes out to some young sailor or soldier who is old enough to fight and die, but not old enough to drink. And in the court system for some of these offenses, if they do the service, pay the fines and attend classes their record is expunged. The first time I got a hand written letter thanking us for “turning my life around” I cried.

Debra, thank you for a very moving note. Jan

Thank for your comment and especially for mentioning this :

Being in a military town, your heart goes out to some young sailor or soldier who is old enough to fight and die, but not old enough to drink.

For girls it is the same.: old enough to become mothers ( an abortion being no option for some church goers ) but too young to have a frozen margarita.

Maybe we should think about ” our ” laws and not just not blindly accept them !! Man-made laws can be change or modified if many good citizens like you see that it would be better for all of us.

Everybody deserve a chance, I have to do community service for a family violence case involving my wife over a minor disagreement where she called police. I needed to do 40 hours and am normally just a calm person and really just wanting to do my hours. Saying u don't take any one with violence is really disheartening because some of us are really innocent just married the wrong people and just trying to do what we got to do and put our lives back on track.

Enjoyed reading the comments! I agree, everyone needs to get a second chance..but, we need to be careful who we take in as court ordered community service volunteers. My years of experience was organizing a youth soccer program and volunteering at the elementary school. We recurit community volunteers which is usually parents, brothers, and sisters. I am looking forward to my new role as a volunteer!

This is a very interesting thread of comments (and a great article). As an organization with a mission of inspiring service, it’s worth thinking about how to transform required community service (court appointed, students, etc.) into true acts of service. Hm.

If you need to complete your community hours fast and legally go to http://www.completecommunityservice.com. We are accepted by courts and probation officers. We are American Angel Works a division of Rosebud Advocacy. Established in 1999. We work with offenders in a way that shows them respect.

Court ordered community service is a new way punishment.Are you looking for a this kind of service? If you need to complete your community hours fast and legally go to www.communityservice101.com. We are accepted by courts and probation officers. We are not a non-profit organization but we do maintain a database of non-profit organizations who accept court ordered community service workers in different locations. We also provide online time sheets for court ordered community service workers which can be used to record and keep track of their hours. These time sheets for court-ordered service can be printed and submitted to the courts for review as needed.

The service above seems to be a less than scrupulous organization. Making your own phone calls is less than $35 and the courts I work with all have their own forms — which require signatures.

I think there are two threads to this conversation. The first has to do with “fit.” Do the skills, time availability, personality, etc. of a particular individual fit my agency’s needs? If not, then they need to be redirected within or outside of my organization no matter why they came to our door. The second thread has to do with whether C.O. folks are “real volunteers.” With all due respect, I think that argument is far more philosophical than practical. I say that if anybody for any reason serves my NPO at little or no cost to my budget, they are volunteers! I understand the more purist point of view but life at the NPO end of the stick is rarely “pure”. All donors of money contribute for a reason that suits their purposes and needs; that does not make their donations any less heartfelt or honorable. Ditto with those who bring their time and talents to my agency; it is not mine to judge why they give, only that what they have to give fits my agency. If this take on “volunteers” puts me in the minority, I’m comfortable with that…and with the public benefits that ALL of my volunteers have generated over the years.

After being released from federal prison for a drug conviction, my period of supervised release included 200 hours of community service. I found an environmental advocacy organization that allowed me to provide administrative support as service. This built the foundation for a great career and a pathway to serve my community.

A year later, because of my service experience, I was hired as a grant writer for a social justice organization. A year after that I was promoted to deputy director of that organization and spent the next four years helping that organization go from an upstart to an enduring institution.

I have raised millions of dollars for good work, have led capacity building and leadership development projects, and have led numerous successful social justice advocacy campaigns. I am now run a consulting firm providing advocacy, capacity building and fund development services to premiere nonprofits, with a team of seven bright consultants- most of whom come from similar backgrounds.

I look back ten years, and I remember lying on a federal prison bunk, staring at the ceiling, thinking about my past and future. The past wasn’t pretty, and the future looked blank. I had no idea that service to my community, in a sector that has the flexibility to not discriminate against people with criminal records, would be the path to success and the opportunity to help others find their way too.

I suspect that many people in a position to engage volunteers would feel good about taking part in someone’s transformation. The promise far outweighs the peril. Open your heart, give someone a chance, the world needs more of it.

What funny, sunny little world did you come from? (Are you perchance on psychotropic medications??😃)

Having witnessed the pros & cons of court-ordered community service personnel in a small nonprofit arts center, the most important caveat that can be given to any nonprofit organization is this: It is great to offer community service opportunities, but NEVER make these folks the backbone of your organization’s people power!

You will likely find yourself handling lots of time-consuming personal drama; no-shows; inappropriate behavior; baby-sitting. If your organization is well-staffed by ample professional staff/volunteers, your organization may be able to well-handle court-ordered community service folks. We found ourselves, already short-handed, having to abandon already stressed core-tasks to handle COCS problems instead. This method did not work well for us. Caveat Emptor.

I just finished a day at a habitat restore and was treated so poorly that I agree , it is servitude .

I live in this horrible county in North Carolina where the police are bullying and harassing. I had an unpleasant encounter and was thrown in jail (for not acquiescing to their taunts and catcalls while they were booking me). And naturally the store loss prevention manager stood by and quietly let this take place. The police can do no wrong around here and whatever they say happened DID even if it’s a complete lie. Court appointed attorneys do nothing but pander to these cop hooligans, retail managers, D.A’s, and judges and will not offer any sort of defense for their clients. I had to show up for court dates for 4 months and I never saw one defense attorney even make the tiniest effort. “Oh give my client the least objectionable crumbs your honor,” as they cringe their pitiful pleas to the judge.

Anyway, I guess I am thankful I wasn’t shot at dawn for a petty but failed attempt at shoplifting. For kicks? Hell no. I am getting older, out of the work force, and at times struggling to make ends meet. Sometimes in drastically unconventional ways. There’s no excuse for it I know….blah…..blah……blah. But I’m not the only one by far.

I felt humiliated in court by my “milk toast” attorney, but he got my charge reduced from goddamn larceny (when the items never left the store) to shoplifting.

This country corn attorney never explained things thoroughly to me, and all of a sudden I am assigned this stretch of “probation” which I don’t fully understand either. This is basically my first trouble with the law besides traffic tickets. I was led into this room where this probation intake person explained the basics to me, had me sign a couple of papers, and then hustled me downstairs where I paid a huge chunk of change to one of the clerks. And my attorney didn’t even have that amount right. So I’ve got to go back with more cash. This hillbilly backwater can’t even process a bank card. It’s unbelievable.

I was told I’d have to go to the probation office next week to be assigned “an officer.” And basically report to him when required and keep out of trouble, etc. Once I read the fine print when I got home, all this crap about community service, seeking gainful employment, or furthering education as probable requirements had me fuming. I was not told this.

Seeking gainful employment is almost laughable since I’m 60, consider myself retired, and who is going to hire someone with a record anyway? My attorney painted such a bleak picture of community service (only he thought it was legit in going door to door “cold calling” these churches, fire stations, and police depts. to be subjected to their servitude, abuse, and proselytizing. I told him I wanted no part of it.

Will these probation officers really try to tailor CS to the offender’s skill set? Probably in the civilized world (which this part of North Carolina isn’t). But now I’m a bit terrified. They think they’re going to change my basic nature with this crap. I wasn’t born yesterday. My crotchety approach is here to stay and gets worse ever year.

Can someone relate their experience as an offender in the CS system? I’ve already been treated like dirt by the police and spend a night on the floor on a palette in jail.

I am so sorry for your situation! Its that way even here in sunny Calif.: Abuse of power is rampant; dig a hole, kick you in, and throw dirt on you – push you down far enough that you have no reasonable hope…The system actually creates career criminals.😐

I have a current sutuation where a Cal trans Supervisor is giving false and inaccurate hours logged in cummunity service in which they are claiming is only 40 hours when I know that I worked the total hours of 248 so far, and I have witnesses who will sign aftdavits, I believe the only reason for them doing this is so that it can look like I violated the order, which will them

My ex who is Poice Officer abused her authority, contacts, / liasons in the Pomona Courts and at the Sam Dimas Sherrfis station, so as to turn me into a criminal of domestic violence, which is untrue, but did it as a means to hurt me legally and to take my son away and my parental rights away.

So after One custdoy case that and Two False criminal cases in the same court house, It looks like they are still trying to intentionally and malicously make is seem that i have violated my community service and and using a Cal trans suspervisor to do it?

What should i do?

what about a person with emphazema who gets breathless climbing stair or walking half a block

I have to do CS and it is picking up trash, I want to know if it is scary of not thanks!

No – you will be “guarded” by law enforcement. But traffic on a roadway could be.

Is Melissa referring to the possibility of there being needles or infections waste in the trash items?

Can I pay something or donate something to complete my 40 hours of community service for probation in cohutta ga

Sorry, probably not. Most volunteer programs like this require you complete the designated hours of service with a registered nonprofit.

It is very hard to find a non profit org. who will allow me EVEN 30 hrs court appointed community service during Covid 19 Pandemic. Half of them tell me they have restrictions because of Covid and the other half will not allow me. Can I call the Magistrate’s office in SC and inform them of what is going on and RESPECTFULLY request to suspend my community service for a HIGHER fine?

At wikispeedia.org, we take both student and court-mandated volunteers….

IMHO I think the courts should pay us.

I own a non-profit media company with an EIN and everything, sadly they said I cannot count that as community service. I am Autistic have PTSD and ADHD, why do they even want me doing work in the first place it’s called a disability for a reason. ADHD is a qualifying condition for Desoxyn why do I owe society some debt? They put me through the system like I was some kind of hopeless junkie, yet I have had prescriptions for it in the past. I am protesting this and will not be doing any “Volunteer” work, nor prison…this kind of system should not be tolerated, as it is indeed making the big leap that labor=punishment.

Is it legal for a non-profit to require a “donation” of $100 in order to accept a community service volunteer?

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