by Jayne Cravens
via coyotecommunications.com & coyoteboard.com (same web site)

Advice for those assigning or supervising court-ordered community service

The page you are reading now is 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. But programs that are expected to host these "volunteers" may also find it helpful.

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.”

Mandatory community service or a "Court Referral Program" is an alternate sentencing option for Superior, Municipal, Traffic and Juvenile Courts in the USA. 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.

According to Probation and Pretrial Services - Supervision, a section on a web site maintained by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts on behalf of the Federal Judiciary, the benefits of this kind of community service are supposed to be that it

Requires people on supervision to give something back to society.

Gives them an opportunity to get work experience, job skills, and references.

Gives the community free labor and provides services that otherwise might not be available due to lack of funding

We'll touch on that idea of "free labor" (which it's not) later on this page.

The aforementioned US federal web site also has a section called Chapter 3: Community Service (Probation and Supervised Release Conditions) that says:

Community service is a versatile condition that can serve multiple purposes. It can, for example, serve as the publicly discernible penalty in probation cases or as a negative consequence for noncompliance with conditions of supervision, as a controlling strategy that requires defendants to be productively occupied, or as a correctional strategy that provides a way for defendants to acquire job readiness skills and job experience or broaden their network of associates in a more productive direction. In addition to the specific sentencing purpose to be served, the desired by-product of community service is always to benefit the community.

Too often, none of these goals are happening via court-ordered community service. Here's why:

The list of nonprofits given to those given court-ordered community service hasn't been updated in years and some of the nonprofits have plenty of volunteers already, or no longer accept people doing volunteer (unpaid) service because of a court order, or even no longer exist.
The volunteering that the recommended nonprofits on that list do have is available only during regularly work hours.
The nonprofits don't have the funding or training to involve these people in volunteer roles (volunteers are not free!).
The person who has to obtain court-ordered community service has no idea how the process works, even what to say when calling a nonprofit to sign up to volunteer. They need more guidance.

Let's change that!

Why I care

I research volunteer engagement practices and volunteering, with an eye to what the best practices are for nonprofits, government programs and others to engage volunteers, I write and do trainings on what I learn, I am usually working with a nonprofit in a role where I am recruiting and supporting volunteers myself, and I am a volunteer myself.

In the role of manager of volunteers, I have been contacted by people that need to volunteer in order to fulfill court-ordered community service, and my experiences with those folks has been largely positive: none who have managed to make it through my screening process have ever let me down as a volunteer and, in fact, all have done at least a bit more number of hours with me than they were required to.
In addition, I have seen people posting on various online communities who need such hours and I have been contacted by them directly as well, and often, I'm the only person that's given them the full guidance they need. Most say that they haven't gotten much guidance on finding community service, and they appreciate both how I treat them and the detailed information I give them.
I've also heard from folks who have been ripped off by unscrupulous hucksters who say, in return for money, they will give a person desperate for hours for the court a letter saying that the person did those hours with a nonprofit - and not only do most courts not accept this and the person gets into even more trouble, but it sullies the concept of virtual voiunteering, a very real and very important form of volunteering.

I want better experiences for both those that engage in community service and those (nonprofits, community programs, etc.) that are expected to accommodate people who are assigned community service. I would like for people to have an experience that prompts them to keep being involved in nonprofits as nonprofits.

Courts officers must learn why nonprofits involve volunteers

Staff members at most nonprofits are NOT sitting around saying, "We have all this work to do and if some people would just show up, with no skills, no training, just a little time and good will in their hearts, we could get it all done." That's not why most nonprofits involve volunteers, especially since volunteers are not free: the staff at a volunteer hosting organization need to create volunteering opportunities, to supervise and support volunteers, to trouble-shoot and to evaluate and report on the experience.

If you ask an agency to create volunteering opportunities specifically for your court-ordered community service folks, you are asking them to spend money and resources they may not be able to afford, and they may not have roles and tasks that just anybody, no matter their skills and experience, can do. Nonprofits, charities, schools and other organizations, more often-than not, need volunteers with specific skills, experience and availability. And most of these programs have a priority to their clients and the services they provide, rather than a priority to accommodate absolutely anyone who needs community service hours.

In short, nonprofits and other groups are limited by budget and expertise in terms of who they can involve as volunteers. Many organizations, like Habitat for Humanity, often have more people wanting to volunteer than they have opportunities, and therefore have to turn a lot of people away.

Here's more about why programs involve volunteers.

The godmother of training about volunteer engagement, Susan Ellis, wrote an excellent piece called Court-Ordered Community Service: Volunteers or Prison Labor? that does a great job of exploring the involvement of court-ordered community service "volunteers" from the perspective of the organizations expected to involve such.

Courts must have better communication with those assigned community service

Courts, probation officers and others MUST do a better job of communicating with those who are assigned community service about what their options and how to approach organizations about volunteering.

For instance, those assigned community service need to be told, more than once, that organizations need plenty of lead time before they involve an applicant: rare is the organization that can get an email at 8 a.m. from someone wanting to volunteer and be able to accommodate that person that same day.

Those assigned community service need to be told that they may need to volunteer at multiple nonprofits in order to get all of the hours needed within a given time frame.

You also need to warn them about community service scams, where the person assigned community service pays money to a shady nonprofit that then gives that person a letter saying he or she completed a certain number of volunteering hours, though no volunteering is done: instead, the person might be asked to watch some videos or to fundraise among their friends on behalf of the nonprofit. Create a policy that your community service folks may NOT, under ANY circumstances, fundraise or pay to volunteer in order to fulfill their community service obligation, no exceptions. Paying a fee as a part of a volunteering program is automatically bad, as this blog details, but it's just too hard for court officers to figure out what's legitimate and what's not.

You need to give those you assign community service guidance on how to contact a nonprofit in order to volunteer, and you need to do it more than once. For instance, tell them all of the following, both in a document and in a video you prepare:

Take It Seriously

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 if they feel you have violated their policies or even if they just don't think you're working out as a volunteer. 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.

Making Contact

When you contact an organization to inquire about community 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." You absolutely will tell the organization about your community service obligation, but at a more appropriate time. 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.

Organizations do NOT have to take every person who wants to volunteer. If an organization says they can't involve you right now, say thank you and move on to another program.

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.

Documenting/Tracking Your Hours

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.

Those assigned community service should know that they could create their own experience at a nonprofit, if they can find a nonprofit to accommodate them: a web designer could help the local historical society create a better web site. A person with the right skills could edit raw videos a nonprofit has into an appealing presentation for that nonprofit's YouTube channel. A person who knows how to correct YouTube automatic closed captioning could contact nonprofits with lots of YouTube videos and offer to correct those transcriptions.

Your list of opportunities needs to be updated and regularly re-verified

If your court program hands out a list of programs you want to recommend to offenders for completing community service, you need to contact those programs at least once a year to make sure they are, indeed, still accepting court-ordered folks as volunteers. Programs change, staff members change, priorities change - you probably won't hear that a program is no longer accepting court-ordered folks as volunteers unless you ask.

Here are some groups you might want to add to your list:

Local nonprofits that produce live theater, dance, music or any kind of performance. They may need ushers for performances, and volunteers can get two to five hours of community service each time.
Local farmer's markets that are organized by nonprofits. They may need volunteers the night before to put together food boxes for subscribers, or need volunteers to help set up or help dismantle a market.
State department of fish and wildlife. They often have all-day or even all-weekend volunteering opportunities (volunteers must provide their own transportation and often bring their own tents and sleeping equipment).
There are local nonprofits that host overnight shelters for a small number of families, often through communities of faith. These nonprofits need volunteers to just sleep in the facility overnight, often a church fellowship hall, and call if there are any issues in the night. A volunteer can get at least 10 hours in just one shift.
Meals on Wheels and food banks are often in need of volunteers who can give many hours, not just one or two here and there.
Web sites that can help people find local volunteering opportunities, like like VolunteerMatch or All for Good or HandsOn Network.

Also, tell them to look for opportunities by looking for:

keywords on social media, like the word volunteer and the name of the person's city and state on Twitter, to see if local organizations are publicizing their volunteering needs.
online groups on Facebook, Reddit or other social media that are focused specifically on a local region, to see if local organizations are publicizing their volunteering needs.

Here is even more detailed advice on finding volunteering opportunities, including opportunities with seniors/elders and opportunities for using business skills specifically.

Virtual volunteering is real volunteering

As noted earlier on this page, there are community service scams where the person assigned community service pays money to a shady nonprofit that then gives that person a letter saying he or she completed a certain number of volunteering hours, though no volunteering is done: instead, the person might be asked to watch some videos or to fundraise among their friends on behalf of the nonprofit. Some of these scams brand themselves as virtual volunteering. They are NOT, because the person, in fact, does not do any actual volunteering.

But virtual volunteering IS real volunteering. It's an established, credible practice with a history of more than 35 years. Online volunteers help nonprofits by transcribing their videos and podcasts for people with hearing impairments, researching topics online, translating text from one language to another, making web pages accessible for people with disabilities, mentoring young people and so, so much more.

One of the most readily available online volunteering opportunities is transcribing scans of historical documents - letters, speeches, newspaper stories, newspaper advertisements and more. By transcribing these documents, online volunteers, the documents become more searchable for researchers and more accessible to everyone. Through these programs, online volunteers are helping to amplify and preserve the stories of escaped enslaved people, the thoughts of and to people like Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, people who attended political meetings held at the state and national levels in the 1800s to free enslaved people or gain women the vote, and on and on. I have a list of every online transcription project for online volunteers that I know about at this resource on finding virtual volunteering roles and activities.

And the reality is that many people assigned community service struggle to get those hours completed because of their work schedule or child-care obligations. It's the 21st century: it's overdue for courts to allow online community service.

I've involved court-ordered community service people as online volunteers. They went through the same volunteer application process as any potential volunteer, including saying what skills they had, their availability, etc. About half of the people who applied disappeared as soon as they got the list of requirements: watching an orientation video, answering some followup questions, checking in every week, etc. - they realized this was real volunteering, requiring real work, and so they didn't follow through. But those who did go through the process were just as good as most other volunteers: one guy researched a particular subject for me, making a list of organizations and their web sites that were focused on a specific topic, which I used to make a web site. Another one populated a database for me with data I needed. Another one created interactive forms I needed and didn't know how to do it myself. I was happy to write a letter for each of them to their court officer, saying what they did as a volunteer and how many hours they completed (which was always more than they needed for the court).

How can a court verify the hours a person spends doing virtual volunteering? For instance, for participation in online historical transcription projects:

Require the volunteer to keep track of service hours on a Google Doc spreadsheet that that person gives you access to for viewing, so you can check-in at any time to see if they have updated it. It should have the name of the project or organization, a web address for more info, the date and time of volunteering service provided by the volunteer, the hours or minutes spent, and a summary of what the volunteer did (“transcribed a letter by George Washington to Alexander Hamilton from June 1775.”). Check into that spreadsheet weekly or every other week to see if it’s been updated.
Require that the volunteer take a photo on their smartphone every time they start transcribing a new document and every time they finish, and that they upload this photo to a private Flickr account album (Flickr is free), one that only the user (the volunteer) and you can see. You can spot check the time and date stamps on photos to see if the data corresponds to the aforementioned spreadsheet data (just spot check – you don’t have to do them all).
Require the volunteer take a screenshot of each document they are going to transcribe, and each transcription they complete, and to upload these screenshots to the aforementioned Flickr account album. This provides more documentation for confirming if a person did the assignment.
Require the volunteer take a selfie of himself or herself at the computer, about to do the work and then again at the completion, and upload these screenshots to the aforementioned Flickr account private album that only you and that volunteer can see. This provides more documentation for confirming if a person did the assignment.

Give the volunteer one to two hours of credit for service hours JUST for setting up and maintaining the Google Doc and the Flickr account correctly.

As volunteerism expert Susan Ellis frequently pointed out, there are very few onsite, traditional volunteering activities where a volunteer is supervised the entire time he or she is performing service. Instead, the volunteers is trained, then given a desk, or a work space and materials, or a phone, or a garbage bag and some gloves, and then they do MOST of their volunteering largely unsupervised. As someone who has been fooled more than a few times by a volunteer sitting at a desk, looking at a computer screen for hours, and pretending to work – and after a day or two, I find out nothing is getting done – I’ve realized that volunteer supervision is much more than eyes-on-the-volunteer, or sign-in sheets at the door.

Could a volunteer fake all this record-keeping? Yes, and it would take that volunteer about as many hours to create the fake documents, screenshots and summaries as it would for them to do the ACTUAL volunteering and record-keeping – meaning they would still have had to do all this time to fulfill community service hours, even if they didn’t end up doing what they said they were doing.

Could someone else do all of this online service for the person? Yes: a parent, a sibling, a friend, or someone the person pays could do all of this. And this happens in onsite, in-person volunteering. People also frequently show up to volunteer at a beach clean up as community service, sign in, go sit in their cars and smoke or listen to music, then come back at the end and get their paperwork signed off that they did the hours. It’s the chance every program takes in not supervising people doing community service every moment. While Lindsay Lohan probably had her assistant do her online community service, I don’t think most people do.

Doesn’t allowing people to do their community service via online volunteering this create a lot of followup by the assigning body? Yes. And if I may be blunt, you all have never done well in this department with onsite, face-to-face folks – I’ve seen the forged paperwork first-hand for nonprofits that don’t exist or for nonprofits that have never seen or heard of the person that supposedly did the service. Let this be your opportunity to up your game in terms of confirming court-ordered community service completion.

You need to help people frame volunteering experience on their résumés

Your own program materials say that assigning community service can give the offender an opportunity to get work experience, job skills, and references. But how much guidance do you give them in this regard? Do you tell them how to note a volunteering role on their résumé? Do you tell them HOW volunteering should be framed so that an employer would see the experience as an asset for an employee to have? Do you tell them how to ask someone at a nonprofit to be a professional reference?

Also see

Advice for hackathons / one-day tech events looking for projects to hack "for good"
How can hackathon or edit-a-thon organizers identify projects or causes for a hack-for-good event? This 2014 offers ideas (all of which have been incorporated into the page you are reading now, but you can contribute more ideas by commenting on this blog).

Dos & don'ts for technical assistance volunteers / volunteers donating expertise
There are many people that want to donate - to volunteer - their professional skills or expertise to a nonprofit, NGO, charity, school or a community or environmental project. They are sometimes called "skilled volunteers." These volunteers might build a web site, or build an app, or build a garden, or design a building, or provide legal assistance, and on and on, for a nonprofit, or even a government program that engages volunteers and supports a particular community, like a women's shelter or a home for people with addicted issues. These are volunteers that are going to work primarily with a program's staff, including other volunteers, rather than directly with clients, but the result of their service may directly affect clients. But these type of volunteering gigs don't always work out, leaving both volunteers and programs frustrated and disappointed. The advice on this page will help everyone involved have a more worthwhile experience?

How Volunteers Can QUICKLY Help Your Program To Be More Accessible Online
Most nonprofits, NGOs, charities, schools and other mission-based organizations will never be able to afford a professional web designer, let alone one that can build a fully accessible web site. Yet, these organizations most certainly want people with disabilities to access their online information, just like any other donor, client, volunteer, participant, activist or other potential supporter. This resource talks about how volunteers can help any mission-based organization have a more accessible, more welcoming web site.

Short-term Assignments for Tech Volunteers
There are a variety of ways for mission-based organizations to involve volunteers to help with short-term projects relating to computers and the Internet, and short-term assignments are what are sought after most by potential "tech" volunteers. But there is a disconnect: most organizations have trouble identifying such short-term projects. This is a list of short-term projects for "tech" volunteers -- assignments that might takes days, weeks or just a couple of months to complete.
Myths About Online Volunteering (Virtual Volunteering)
Online volunteering means unpaid service that is given by volunteers via the Internet. It's also known as virtual volunteering, online mentoring, ementoring, evolunteering, cyber volunteering, cyber service, telementoring, online engagement, and on and on. Here is a list of common myths about online volunteering, and my attempt to counter them.
Creating One-Time, Short-Term Group Volunteering Activities
Details on not just what groups of volunteers can do in a two-hour, half-day or all-day event, but also just how much an organization or program will need to do to prepare a site for group volunteering. It's an expensive, time-consuming endeavor - are you ready? Is it worth it?
Using Video to Support Online Volunteers/Remote Volunteers.
Video is a great way to further support volunteers, and your computer probably already has all of the tools you need to make a video, or to engage in a live video conversation with others. Video isn't something to use only with online volunteers or remote volunteers (those providing onsite service at a different location than yours). It's also a tool you can use with new and current volunteers. In addition to an organization producing videos for volunteers, it can also work the other way around: volunteers can produce videos for organizations. This resource provides information on your options, and links to my own short video on the subject?

Discuss this web page, or comment on it, here.

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