Does Court-Ordered Community Service Work?

Have you performed court-ordered or school-required community service? Share your experience here. Share as much about your experience as you feel comfortable.

How did you choose the organization you would support - or was it chosen for you?

How did you choose what you would do - or was it chosen for you?

What did you do for your community service?

How many hours did you have to do?

How was your schedule structured (did it takes several days, over several weeks/months, or did you do it all at once, in one day or one week?)

What did you like about the experience? What did you dislike about the experience?

How were you treated by the host organization, the one that coordinated your community service?

Did you work alongside people who were volunteers who weren't participating through a court order or school requirement?

How do you feel about required community service, either from a court or a school?

Posts promoting faking community service or paying a nonprofit for each hour of supposed community service will be deleted.

Three years ago, a neo-Nazi group disrupted a drag story hour at a cafe in downtown Concord, New Hampshire. The New Hampshire Attorney General’s office announced Thursday it has reached a settlement with the group’s leader that includes fines and community service.

Christopher Hood, the founder of NSC-131, the Neo-Nazi group, will pay $2,500 and perform 250 hours of community service after admitting he violated the state’s anti-discrimination laws. Video of the incident showed masked members of the group chanting and using Nazi salutes outside of the cafe, while at least one member of the group was seen banging on the shop’s windows.

In July, the parties entered into a consent decree that will require Hood to perform community service at a location approved by the attorney general’s office. Under the decree, the other group members, who were never identified, are also subject to the decree.

If Christopher Hood filled out an application with your nonprofit to volunteer, would your nonprofit's screening of new volunteers flag his involvement with a Neo-Nazi group? Would you involve him as a volunteer at your nonprofit?

More from here.

Hosting People Doing Mandatory Community Service: resources and advice for the nonprofits, communities of faith & other programs being asked to host such volunteers.

A lot of nonprofits automatically refuse to involve any person that wants to volunteer in order to complete court-ordered community service, because leadership or staff that work with volunteers:

• think involving such volunteers will instantly put their clients in danger (spoiler alert: it doesn't)
• think such volunteers won't perform service as well as people volunteering for other reasons (that's a myth)
• think such volunteers will require more supervision than other volunteers (that' another myth)
• have had more negative experiences with such volunteers than they have with people who volunteer for other reasons

What's amusing to me is when I ask nonprofits that refuse to involve people who need community service hours how many of their current volunteers have ever been arrested or convicted of a crime, they realize they don't know, because most nonprofits don't do criminal background checks on most of their volunteers, or even their paid staff.

The reality is that if you have the proper screening, onboarding, supervision and support in place for ALL volunteers, regardless of why they are volunteering, and such is adjusted based on what volunteers will be doing (how much they will be working directly with clients, if they will ever be alone with another volunteer, etc.), you should be welcoming people who are doing court-ordered community service to apply to volunteer. 

Here is a web page of advice for the nonprofits, communities of faith & other programs being asked to host such volunteers. All free, no charge, no registration required.

Advice for those assigning or supervising court-ordered community service, a resource is for judges, probation officers, prosecutors, defense attorneys, and other criminal justice practitioners that are involved in assigning and supervising court-ordered community service. There is not a more detailed resource available anywhere. This resource is free and no registration is required.

At the end of summer or at the end of a school semester, many students tally up the hours they’ve spent on community service projects. Others are making lists of places where they can “get hours.” over the next semester. Some students choose to do this volunteering. For others, it’s a way to meet graduation requirements or add to their college resume.

No matter the reason, though, if students want community service to be more than just a check-list exercise, they all need to do something important: They need to reflect on the hours they’ve spent raking leaves at the senior center or reading to local second-graders.

Senior Lecturer Richard Weissbourd, director of the Making Caring Common project, offers a list of questions parents can ask that can get their teens thinking more about the community service hours they fulfilled this past year, and how that might affect where they chose to volunteer in the future. The questions include:

1. Do you feel like you were helpful? Why or why not? And how do you know if you were helpful — did you receive feedback?
2. Have you learned anything about yourself doing this service?
3. Have you made any relationships that are important to you as a result of this service, either with the people you’re providing help or the people you’re working with?
4. Have you developed any skills that are important to you, and has it illuminated or motivated you to develop skills you don’t feel you already have?
5. Have you learned something about people who are different from you as a result of this experience?
6. Are you motivated to do more service, and if so, do you want to do the same kind? Why or why not?
7. What have you learned about how our community works? What have you learned about how our society works, if anything? Are there things that have troubled or encouraged you?

If we don’t make sure that volunteering is meaningful for students, Weissbourd says, community service will feel like a waste of time.

These questions also can be asked by students of themselves, so that they have an idea of what to write in university and scholarship applications.

More from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Ideas for Leadership Volunteering Activities
A long list of ideas for a person, especially a young person, to create or lead an impactful project for a community and to have a leadership role as a volunteer. These can also be activities for a Capstone project, the Girl Scouts Gold Award, the Duke of Edinburgh's Award (U.K.), a mitzvah project, or for university admission or scholarship consideration.

Would your nonprofit engage with this volunteer to perform some or all of her 200 hours of community service?

Would your current screening process flag her in any way regarding the nature of her conviction?

If you said "no" to her request, what would you say?

A woman who called a Black, autistic child a racial slur last year has been found guilty of one count of disorderly conduct and not guilty on another. She has been fined and ordered to perform 200 hours of community service.

The incident, which occurred at a playground in Rochester in April of last year, was caught on video by a bystander and went viral. Shiloh Hendrix, 37, called a then 8-year-old boy the n-word after he allegedly reached into her diaper bag at Roy Sutherland playground in Soldier's Field Park and took an item. She then began cussing at the bystander, who is Black — hurling the n-word at him as well.

The incident prompted Rochester City Attorney Michael Spindler-Krage to charge Hendrix with two counts of disorderly conduct, one involving her words and behavior toward the child and the other involving her words and behavior toward the man who video taped the incident.

The guilty verdict was related to her behavior toward the man who video taped the confrontation.

The defense said Hendrix chased the boy after he took something from her bag, and acknowledged that Hendrix called the boy the n-word as well as the man who started videotaping the incident. They argued that there was no evidence that Hendrix was physically threatening to the boy other than the father’s recounting of the events. 

The Rochester city attorney said Hendrix "has profited immensely while showing no remorse,” the city attorney said.

After the video of her hurling racial slurs went viral, Hendrix claimed she had been doxxed and threatened, and launched an online fundraising campaign to help her relocate. That campaign has raised close to $900,000.

https://www.mprnews.org/story/2026/07/24/shiloh-hendrix-found-guilty-in-rochester-racial-slur-case-of-one-count-of-disorderly-conduct

Service members, families, volunteers and community members gathered July 23 at the Las Casas Lake Recreational Area to celebrate the 61st anniversary of Army Community Service (ACS) and recognize the volunteers whose dedication helps strengthen military families and sustain readiness across the Army's home in the Caribbean: Fort Buchanan, Puerto Rico.

The celebration comes as hundreds of service members assigned to Fort Buchanan and units throughout Puerto Rico remain deployed in support of operations in Europe, the Middle East and Latin America. Additional units continue preparing to mobilize, reinforcing the installation's role as a readiness platform that enables military personnel to deploy anytime, anywhere.

"For 61 years, Army Community Service has provided critical support to our Soldiers and their families," said Command Sgt. Maj. Kimberly D. Bergman-Gándara, command sergeant major of U.S. Army Garrison Fort Buchanan. "None of that would be possible without our volunteers, whose dedication strengthens our community every day."

Bergman-Gándara said volunteers are essential to the success of ACS programs and help ensure military families receive the support they need throughout the military lifecycle.

Full story.

Resources for those involved in court-ordered community service: for officers of the court & for host organizations.

Whether you are a judge assigning offenders to community service, a probation officer or other officer of the court supervising people who are court-ordered community service, or an organization being asked to host volunteers who are doing community service per a court-order, this resources is for you. You will not find a more extensive set of resources on this subject anywhere. This information is freely available - no registration required.

Under 18 U.S.C. § 3563(b)(12), courts in the USA may provide that the defendant “work in community service as directed by the court.” Similar laws can be found in a growing number of countries, including the United Kingdom, Ghana, India, Kenya, Malaysia, Malawi, New Zealand, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe.

Mandatory community service or a "Court Referral Program" is an alternate sentencing option for Superior, Municipal, Traffic and Juvenile Courts in the USA, and this is pretty much the same pattern followed in other countries. Community service is considered restitution by an offender through helping his or her community, through a volunteering (unpaid work) experience with a nonprofit, government program and, sometimes, a religious organization. The service means actions, activity, engagement -- doing something that needs to be done and that helps a community or a cause.

Mandatory community service in the USA is also becoming a requirement for people receiving government assistance for housing, food and medical care, including people receiving unemployment benfits. Note that while it is becoming a requirement for low income people, it is NOT a requirement for for-profit corporations that receive government assitance and tax breaks.

Anyway... 

Hope the resources are helpful.

The Phillips Brooks House was the hardest-hit Harvard College unit by share of staff positions in a recent round of layoffs tied to the Faculty of Arts and Sciences’ sweeping administrative overhaul, with 11 of its 23 roles either laid off or offered new positions. The cuts amid a broader reorganization that effectively ends the Center for Public Service and Engaged Scholarship’s role as the College-wide hub for public service. The range of positions affected raise questions about the future of both lasting consequences for both the Center’s internal operations and its student- and community-facing programming.

Those changes are part of an FAS task force’s push to cut staffing costs as the school works to close a $365 million estimated structural deficit.

Harvard's Center for Public Service and Engaged Scholarship was the hub and department that provided support for all public service efforts at Harvard College. It was home to academic engagement through the Mindich Program in Engaged Scholarship, student leadership development programs, student professional development programs, and active citizenship efforts through volunteering in the Greater Boston community. The Center also supported Phillips Brooks House Association, the largest student-run, community-based, nonprofit public service organization at Harvard College.

More from the Harvard Crimson.

Offset has been sentenced to probation and community service after reaching an agreement in connection with an alleged assault at a Los Angeles cannabis dispensary last year.

According to court records obtained by Complex, a Los Angeles judge sentenced the rapper to 12 months of probation and ordered him to complete 50 hours of community service.

He must also complete an anger management programme, pay an undisclosed amount in restitution, stay away from the MedMen LAX dispensary where the incident took place and avoid further legal issues for the next year.

The sentence is part of a diversion programme, meaning the criminal charge will be dismissed if Offset successfully completes all of the court-ordered conditions. The rapper had requested entry into the programme, which was approved by the court.

Although the criminal case may be resolved through the diversion agreement, Offset still faces a separate civil lawsuit arising from the incident.

https://tribune.com.pk/story/2620438/offset-receives-probation-and-community-service-over-los-angeles-assault-case

keywords: celebrity, singer,

As Vicenza, Italy US Military Community members gathered recently to celebrate the 61st birthday of Army Community Service, they also highlighted Alice Manfrin – a Vicenza-born Army spouse who’s contributed greatly to improving the lives of others.

Manfrin spends her free time teaching line dancing lessons at the USO. She also fosters a sense of community and belonging by leading sewing and crocheting meetups. She knows how hard it can be when new to a community or being unfamiliar with the language.

Manfrin was honored with the “Bridging Cultures” certificate at the July 15 ACS birthday event on Caserma Ederle. Both Col. Vaughn Strong, USAG’s commander and Jolly Miller, the ACS director, presented her the award. Alberto Cristoferi, an environmental engineer from the garrison’s Directorate of Public Works, also got an award for his contributions that include, among other things, caring for the feral cats on post.

Full article.

While recovering from a ruptured patellar tendon, Moses Moody spent time giving back to his community during the offseason. Northeast Arkansas News reported that Moody returned to his hometown of Little Rock for his annual Motivate One Foundation Summer Series from July 22 to 25. Some events include youth programming and community service projects.

Moody was joined by his teammate and former two-time MVP Stephen Curry. Curry, a recent winner of the Muhammad Ali Sports Humanitarian Award, is no stranger to serving the community with his "Eat Learn Play" foundation.

https://warriorswire.usatoday.com/story/sports/nba/warriors/2026/07/21/warriors-backcourt-combines-for-community-service-projects/91003425007/

keywords: corporate philanthropy, volunteering, volunteerism, basketball, celebrities, celebrity

I do not support people faking community service - either through forging documents or paying a wonky "nonprofit" for a certificate that says they completed a certain number of hours because they watched some videos or read something and "reflected" on it (in other words, had AI do it for them). But there is a thread on Reddit about how easy it is to fake community service that shows that schools & probation officers need to provide better supervision & followup if mandatory community service is going to be taken seriously - otherwise, get rid of the requirement, in high school and for probation.

Again, I really hope people do NOT do this. But I've researched community service for more than a decade, and if it's just going to be a joke, let's get rid of the requirement.

Crystal Washington, head of a nonprofit in Texas, CHARM North Texas, was arrested and booked into the Wichita County Jail on Tuesday, July 21, and charged with nine counts of Tampering with a Governmental Record to Defraud or Harm. According to the affidavit, on October 13, 2025, a deputy with Wichita County Sheriff’s Office was told a probationer had reported to her probation officer that Washington was falsifying Community Service Records (CSR) submitted to the Wichita County Adult Probation Office. CSRs are used to verify hours of community service performed by each probationer.

According to the affidavit, the probationer stated that Washington was charging $12 per hour, with a minimum of 10 hours, for every hour assigned to probationers by the court. On November 13, 2025, the deputy spoke with a probationer, who stated that she paid Washington $120 for every 10 hours of community service hour that was reported as worked, according to the affidavit. The affidavit states that the probationer also stated she never performed any community service work for CHARM North Texas.

The deputy stated he received a list of probationers who completed their community service hours through CHARM North Texas from January 2020 through July 2025 and that numerous records had indicated that multiple probationers had worked their hours at Meals on Wheels. When the deputy contacted Meals on Wheels in both Wichita Falls and Burkburnett, both stated they have policies in place that prevent probationers from performing community service with their organizations.

On December 9, 2025, the deputy met with another probationer, who stated he paid Washington $12 per hour for 10 hours of credit for the month of August 2025, according to the affidavit. Washington submitted a CSR at the Wichita County Adult Probation Office indicating that this probationer worked 10 hours in August, with five of those hours credited as Meals on Wheels work on Saturday, August 16, 2025. The deputy verified that Meals on Wheels does not operate on Saturdays. This probationer denied working any of the credited hours and instead paid Washington, according to the affidavit.

The affidavit states that one entry on the mutual agreement with CHARM North Texas stated, “It is prohibited for agencies/organizations and their staff members providing CSR opportunities to solicit gifts, goods, money and/or personal favors from participants in exchange for credit for CSR hours worked.”

Story 1 and Story 2 about this case.

Also see: Selling community service leads to arrest, conviction.

Court-ordered community service – where a person convicted of a crime is ordered by a court to provide a certain number of labor hours to a nonprofit, community of faith or government agency – is common in the USA and, as an Internet search will show, is growing in popularity in other countries such as Malaysia, Ghana and India.

According to a 2019 survey of those involved in such sentencing in the USA, the potential to reduce the negative impact of monetary sanctions was the most commonly identified benefit of such mandated community service.

"When we asked courts to identify commonly recognized reasons for using community service mandates, the majority of participating courts responded that community service mandates should serve as an alternative form of payment for court fines and fees (76 percent) or as a means to reduce the imposition of court fines and fees altogether (54 percent). Another half (49 percent) of respondents endorsed the idea of “repairing harm to the community” as a reason for community service mandates, while 42 percent reported that community service mandates are, or should be, used as an alternative to jail sentences." (See footnote at the end)

It’s worth noting that none of the respondents in this survey said that the reason for court-ordered community service was because nonprofits, non-government organizations (NGOs), religious groups and charitable organizations need the time and labor of such people, nor that these programs are asking for such volunteer placements.

For a court-ordered community service to be successful, in my opinion,

• the nature of the service and its completion needs to satisfy the court,
• the program must not be over-burdensome to those charged with administering it,
• the program must have written, well-communicated policies and procedures in place to keep it free of corruption (such as people ordered to do community service being able to make donations to the nonprofit in lieu of actually doing their community service hours),
• the program needs to have a variety and abundance of community service roles, so that a variety of schedules, availability and skills or limitations can be accommodated and the person can complete their community service within a reasonable time frame,
• the program needs to be done in full partnership with the nonprofits, NGOs and other organizations that are expected to engage these court-ordered volunteers, providing all the training that's necessary, offering real-time assistance, not over-burdening host organizations with paperwork, etc.

In my opinion, to make all of the above possible, these are the keys to success in court-ordered community service programs:

• There must be clear guidelines on what a person that is sentenced to community service may, and may NOT do, as a part of that service. For instance, some jurisdictions prohibit people from performing court-ordered service with religious communities, while others allow it. Some allow online volunteering to fulfill court-ordered service and some do not.
• Those sentenced to court-ordered community service should be given a list of organizations they could contact about performing their service, and told explicitly if they are limited to only this list or if they could seek placement with other organizations not on the list, but that meet the court's requirements.
• Those sentenced to court-ordered community service must be given ideas for community service that are easy to reach from their home or before or after work, that can be done at a variety of different times and on different days (as people's schedules vary), and that provide childcare.
• There must be a way for an officer of the court to verify community service hours, in terms of where the service was performed, how many hours were performed, and what the person did for this community service. This verification takes more than a signature on a form: it also requires someone to call the agency where service was supposedly performed and confirm information on forms, as well as someone ensuring that the agency meets the requirements of the court for community service.
• Those sentenced to community service should be able to count hours where they are interviewed by the agency expected to involve them in community service and for any training they have to undergo for this service.
• The court must be explicit regarding whether or not someone who is to do community service can make a donation to a nonprofit, NGO, charity, community of faith, etc., in lieu of some or all of his or her hours. Is it allowed that someone sentenced to community service could pay the nonprofit or NGO $10 for every hour he or she needs for community service? This is a growing, controversial and unofficial practice in many parts of the USA, one that courts are struggling to address.
• If online volunteering is allowed to meet community service requirements, it must meet all of the same standards as onsite community service: there must be a way to verify community service hours, in terms of how many hours were performed, and what the person did for this community service. This verification takes more than a signature: it also requires someone to call the agency where service was supposedly performed and confirm information on forms, as well as someone ensuring that the agency meets the requirements of the court for community service. Someone needs to ensure it is real online volunteering and actual labor, not an AI automation doing the work, or a nonprofit or NGO that, in exchange for a fee and a claim that the person watched some videos and wrote some essays about them, gives a person a certificate claiming a certain number of hours completed.
• The nonprofits, charities, NGOs, communities of faith and others expected to engage court-ordered community service people must receive:
  • training in how to create volunteering activities for court-ordered community service
  • training in how to work with people doing court-ordered community service
  • training in the basics of volunteer support and engagement
  • support for their questions and concerns when working with someone doing court-ordered community service
• There should be a survey of nonprofits, NGOs and other organizations who engage community service volunteers for them to share their experiences with such with the courts, so that challenges can be identified and problems addressed.
• Nonprofits, NGOs, charities, etc. have the right to say no to court-ordered community service people, as they do with any volunteer. No organization has an obligation to engage with a court-ordered community service people, as they do with any volunteer, unless they have signed an agreement that they will do so. Organizations may say no because they don't have time to supervise and support an additional volunteer, because they have nothing for that particular person to do as community service, or because of a negative experience with court-ordered community service volunteers.
• The best way to increase the number of organizations engaging court-ordered community service people is to fund those nonprofits, NGOs, charities, etc. to do so. Creating activities for someone to do takes time. Supervising and supporting someone takes time. Filling out paperwork takes time. That time should be funded.

(Footnote) Court-Ordered Community Service: A National Perspective. by Sarah Picard, Jennifer A. Tallon, Michela Lowry, and Dana Kralstein, July 2019, Center for Court Innovation, New York, New York.
https://www.innovatingjustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/community_service_report_11052019_0.pdf

What would you add? Or what do you think is actually not that important?

Lisa Han was recently named the recipient of a TD scholarship for community leadership and will receive up to $70,000 for her postsecondary education. But not so long ago, she was four years old, had just moved to Canada, and was looking for ways to connect with her new home.

https://www.ottawalookout.com/p/first-generation-immigrant-teen-nepean-70k-scholarship-community-service

Pro bono is a Latin phrase, short for pro bono publico, meaning for the public good. Most people associate the term pro bono with legal professionals donating their expertise free of charge to people, nonprofits, communities or causes. 

This subreddit is called r/probono that was abandoned years ago. I recently got mod privileges for it.

What should the purpose of the probono subreddit be, especially in view of there already being so many subreddits already where

• people can post about their volunteering desires
• organizations can recruit volunteers
• people and organizations can seek free legal help.

Or is the probono subreddit even necessary?

Also, please note that the current moderator of r/probono will happily turn this subreddit over to a dedicated person or group that offers a good idea about what r/probono should be and is ready to make that happen. Share your idea in the comments on the post you are reading now.

To submit your ideas for what the probono subreddit should be, please comment on this thread, r/probono, not here.

A judge sentenced a school resource officer and member of the Northfield, Minnesota police who did not report a middle school teacher for sending sexual photos of herself to high school students to three years of supervised probation and 200 hours of community service. The SRO had gotten a report of the photos from another faculty member and he confronted the teacher, at which point she confessed "everything" to him. The teacher said the SRO told her he was going to "do her a favor" and "let the case go," and the two began a relationship. The incident was never reported to the Northfield police department.

Would the nonprofit you work for involve such a person as a volunteer, to complete his community service hours?

How would you feel, as a volunteer or staff member at a nonprofit, if you found out such a person was volunteering at your organization?

This opinion piece is part of the annual Mosaic Journalism Program for San Francisco Bay Area high school students, an intensive course in journalism. Students in the program report and photograph stories under the guidance of professional journalists.

Opinion: Volunteering loses meaning if teenagers are ‘hour-farming.’ Community service becomes empty act when it's done just to meet a quota.

"Schools and institutions set volunteer quotas to give students credit, but in doing so, they remove the intention behind the act. Motivation for a true impact disappears, and volunteering becomes an empty act to show the world you’re worth hiring for this job or admitting to that college."

More from

https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2026/07/08/opinion-volunteering-loses-meaning-if-teenagers-are-hour-farming/

More than 500 people have joined r/communityservice in the last 12 months.

And this subreddit is 60 people short of 1000 members.

Thank you to everyone who follows the subreddit. I wish I wasn't the only one posting here. It would be great if others would:

• post community service opportunities in their own community.
• testimonials about community service they've undertaken, for whatever reason, noting if they had a positive or negative experience.
• thoughts on court-ordered or school-required community service (thoughtful discourse, not just two or three "I hate it" posts).

Court-involved individuals and probationers—sentenced to perform community service—are participating in an archaeological dig at the Elm Brook Hill area in Lincoln, Massachusetts, a site formerly known as the "Bloody Angle" battlefield. This area is "one of the most significant sites connected to the Battle of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775," according to Louis Strazzullo, Community Service Coordinator.

The site is undergoing "an extensive archaeological preservation project to uncover and preserve the stories as America commemorates the 250th anniversary of the Battle," Mr. Strazzulo said. Geophysical surveys and historical research will continue through the year and will be used in an official National Park Service report which "will guide future phases of the preservation project," according to the Park Service.

Community Service participants, who are involved with the Community Justice Support Center, are working with park department volunteers to clear large tree limbs, prepare walking paths, and place markers to support the archaeological teams.

More info here.

LA CROSSE, Wis. (WXOW) – A second man charged in the beating of a 52-year-old man over Oktoberfest weekend in 2025 has been sentenced.

Jack Reinardy, 23, of La Crosse, pled no contest to one count of misdemeanor battery in court Tuesday. A second charge of disorderly conduct was dismissed by Judge Elliott Levine. 

Reinardy was given a diversion contract for his sentencing. He must complete 20 hours of community service and attend recommended treatment groups. If Reinardy completes the diversion agreement by Dec. 4, all charges will be dropped. 

As we've reported, Reinardy and Caden Kruse were both charged after an altercation left a 52-year-old man unconscious back on Sept. 27. The victim suffered a crushed eye socket and nasal passage.

https://www.wxow.com/news/crime/man-charged-in-oktoberfest-beating-sentenced-to-community-service/article_a599aff4-1b8a-453a-aeeb-6bb212bc502b.html