Community Service Completion Letter: Fill & Download for Free

I think it’s a bad idea. Community service isn’t a bad idea. Nor is getting school credit for it. But if you make it mandatory, then you take away the essential motivation behind volunteerism and replace it with what is essentially a profit motive. Rather the opposite of service, which is based on empathy, caring and the desire to do something constructive for the benefit of others.As someone who ran a non profit organization for years, and dealt with all kinds of volunteers, I can tell you that high school kids who aren’t truly motivated for the right reasons are a pain in the ass to deal with. They need to be watched all the time, taking staff time away from essential tasks. They do whatever tasks they are assigned in the most slipshod, uncaring manner possible, again, taking time away from staff or motivated volunteers who need to redo the work. And then they expect you to sign their time sheet and write them a service completion letter, acting aggrieved when you explain that you can’t give them credit for work they didn’t do.I have worked with plenty of teens who really cared about what they were doing. They have worked with younger kids to teach them reading and math. They have worked on neighborhood clean-up and beautification projects. They have planted and maintained school gardens. They have produced, almost entirely on their own, wonderful community festivals for other teens. Those are the motivated ones, and they were a joy to work with. But those who are forced to volunteer because it’s mandated by their school just aren’t worth the time and effort it takes to keep them on task.By all means, give teens who volunteer credit for what they do. They deserve it. Just don’t make it mandatory.

Only the court can answer if you can do your community service online. Some courts have said yes, but many say no, because there have been so many scams, where an organization says you can pay a fee and they will give you a letter saying you completed community service - but all you did was, maybe, watch videos.This is where you can find Virtual Volunteering & Home-Based Volunteering. But remember: you FIRST must get permission from the court. They are more likely to give you this if you volunteer online for a local nonprofit than one far away.There are lots of ways to find quick community service. I have advice here:Finding Community ServiceNote: none of these recommendations are about helping me or any company I work for. I’m completely neutral in my recommendations.Here are all of My blogs about some aspect of court-ordered community service, including information about these companies that have tried to scam the courts.

My pet peeve is that Hollywood occasionally shows a person who was given a choice between going to jail or joining the military. This was done for a time during World War II, and maybe in Korea (I am not sure), but it has not been done at least since the 1960s. I joined the Air Force in 1966 as a personnel officer, and our training included this fact. Years later I had joined the Army and was being trained as a recruiter, and my training included the fact that this was prohibited.Later as a recruiter, I was working a young lad who was under charges, and he had a letter from the judge saying that he was being given the choice of joining the Army or going to jail. I forget what the charge was. Anyway, I ran this up the line and was told that not only could I not accept him under these circumstances, he could not even talk to us as long as the charges were still pending. In orderr to enlist, the charges would have to be completely dropped or otherwise closed. If he were found guilty at the trial, the trial would have to be totally completed, all fines paid, any jail sentence served, to include community service or orobation, and at least two years would have to have passed. Then he could apply for a moral waiver, and there was no guarantee that one would be given.Sot it is not as easy for a criminal to join the military as Hollywood thinks.