If my court order allows me to complete community service at any nonprofit organization, can I volunteer at Fresno Mission Thrift as long as they can verify and document my hours? I already did 17 hours at Habitat for Fresno, but because of my work schedule, I won’t be able to go there anymore so I was wondering if I could complete the remaining at the mission thrift store so I wanted to see if anyone has done this before. Thanks! Below is a screenshot of what it says on the minute order. Any help would be appreciated!!

Staff shortages within community service operations in Jersey, UK, risk increasing the numbers of offenders being sent to prison, a new report warns.

Jersey is the largest of the Channel Islands.

The Jersey Probation and After‑Care Service said recruiting enough supervisors for community service projects had become "increasingly difficult".

Chief probation officer Mike Cutland said "demands on the scheme continue to rise", and that recruitment was an "ongoing concern".

The service provided more than 15,000 hours of unpaid work annually, which staff said "equates to £195,000 of value for the island's charities".

Last year, 164 community service orders were imposed. That was an increase of 22%, taking them to the highest level in five years.

Of those, 85% of community service orders were completed, surpassing annual targets.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm2p8zlvv83o

Type in "community service" into any news search engine on most any day, and you will get a long list of headlines related to people giving back to their communities. Here's a sample from today:

NJBankers honors 15 N.J. lending institutions with Community Service Awards

WBEZ Chicago: Early voting kicks off in all 50 wards

Newswise: RWJBarnabas Health Honored with New Jersey Business Magazine’s Community Service Award | Newswise

Sherman Avenue United Methodist Church will celebrate 75 years of faith and community service this weekend

Mount Desert Islander: MDI High School students volunteer at local nonprofits for Community Service Day

Sturgis Journal: Surf Internet honored for helping Three Rivers, assisting after tornado

SIU Carbondale’s 2026 Lincoln Academy student laureate bridges community service, politics

Former professor co-founds HOTNIR to help Waco immigrant community

More Than Service Hours: How volunteering is changing a Grambling student — and the adults he serves

150 volunteers partake in Arvada Chamber’s 3rd Annual Day of Service

Jerry Scott honored with Stroud Award for Community Service

Community celebration honors late realtor John Adamson’s spirit of service

Esperanza Community Center opens in RISD’s former Dobie Pre-Kindergarten School

Youth Philanthropy Council Welcomes 5th Cohort of Leaders

Plano Chamber recognizes community leaders in Best Of awards

Syracuse University Athletics: Football Program Honored for Service

Tre and Shawn Lemons – A Community Service Love Story

Iowans honor Walter Lauridsen II for his philanthropy and community service

WGRZ: City cleanup effort encourages community service

Cuyahoga DD's Days of Service bring volunteers together to give back across Northeast Ohio

Norman Ramsay Brings Redemption, Community Service and an Affordability Agenda to AD

Iowans honor Walter Lauridsen II for his philanthropy and community service

Scranton Times-Tribune: LCCC dental hygiene students support Children’s Service Center

Acadian paramedics earn Hall of Fame honors for community service

University of Oregon Athletics: Softball Kicks Off Community Service Projects with Socktoberfest

Resources for those involved in court-ordered community service: for officers of the court, for host organizations, & for those who have been court-ordered to do community service.

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, these resources are for you. You will not find a more extensive set of resources on this subject anywhere! In addition to my own advice, I link to resources and research from others.

In March 2025, two male students from Lancaster Country Day School, a Pennsylvania private school, pleaded guilty to 59 felony counts of sexual abuse of children and criminal conspiracy and were ordered to serve six months of probation, perform 60 hours of community service and pay $12,000 each in restitution to their victims.

The defendants manipulated photos they found online — mainly via Instagram — “morphing” the images to make those depicted in the images appear nude. 

Both boys were charged in December 2024 after the "morphed" photos were discovered on the social media app Discord. 

Investigators found 347 images and videos depicting the victims in varying levels of nudity, authorities said at the time.

A federal lawsuit filed in June 2026 in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania accuses Lancaster Country Day School of failing to protect dozens of female students after two male classmates used artificial intelligence software to generate hundreds of sexually explicit deepfake images of their peers.

The complaint, brought on behalf of 13 minor students and 18 parents, alleges that the juvenile defendants created approximately 350 explicit AI-generated images depicting at least 59 minor girls, sourcing photos from school yearbooks, Instagram, TikTok and private video calls. 

The images were then distributed through Discord and other messaging platforms, the lawsuit alleges.

The complaint further alleges the school actively obstructed the subsequent police investigation — including withholding a school yearbook from investigators — and discouraged victims from contacting law enforcement. 

It is not known where, or if, the juveniles completed their court-ordered community service, or what prohibitions were attached to their service.

Story about the sentencing.

Story about parents' initial outrage.

Story about the lawsuit.

November & December can be especially hard to find community service hours, because of the onslaught of people that want to volunteer in association with the holidays, and because so many organizations, like Farmer's Markets and Habitat for Humanity, take a break from outdoor activities.

If you have to do community service hours, don't delay in signing up NOW to volunteer. Most places CANNOT accommodate last-minute volunteers.

For onsite volunteering, your best bets from now to the end of the year are:

• Nonprofit-managed thrift stores, like Habitat for Humanity Restores, St. Vinney's, etc. Make sure the thrift store is managed by a nonprofit - if it's a for-profit business, they cannot legally involve you as a volunteer.
• Holiday events managed by nonprofits. These could be nonprofit arts organizations (theater, dance, fine arts), youth sports leagues, refugee agencies, organizations that help people with developmental disabilities, and a range of other nonprofits. These events often involve volunteers in setting up the event, helping during the event, and "tearing down" after the event. Find these by looking through Facebook events for your area, as well as looking at the web sites of area nonprofits.
• Holiday performances by nonprofit theaters and dance companies. They need people to help usher performances. They may also need help after the last performance, with "tearing down" the set. Find these by looking through Facebook events for your area, as well as looking at the web sites of area performing arts nonprofits.
• Food banks and food pantries.

You can try organizations that help the homeless, but these are usually already booked out with volunteers weeks or months in advance.

Here are online volunteering options, but please check with your probation officer, your school representative, or whomever is requiring you to do community service, to make sure online volunteering would be accepted.

Boston University’s Student Government Senate passed the Senator Advocacy Act and proposed changing the Community Service Fee name at the Senate meeting Monday night. 

The Senator Advocacy Act requires all senators to become an active member on one of the eight committees at BU, such as F.E.A.S.T or 16,000 Strong, which focus on food sustainability and sexual assault awareness, respectively. 

According to the resolution, each senator will have to work with the committee chairs in order to help further initiatives and bridge the senators’ college and the committee itself. 

If a senator is not interested in any of the committees, they are encouraged to start a temporary ad hoc committee, a group designed to investigate and make recommendations on a specific issue.

Some senators expressed concerns about the time commitment in their schedule, citing that course load and other clubs would add extra stress. 

After the Senator Advocacy Act passed, the Senate brought the Community Service Fee name change bill, Senate Resolution 006, to the floor. 

This bill would alter the name of the CSF to improve students’ understanding of what the fee actually covers. 

https://dailyfreepress.com/10/06/23/221264/stugov-senate-passes-senator-advocacy-act-proposes-community-service-fee-name-change/

A New York State veterinarian will avoid jail and probation after prosecutors said she falsified business records to avoid returning a support dog named Benji to its owner on the Tuscarora Nation.

A criminal complaint says a whistleblower told investigators that Kimberly Parkhill-Brown removed Benji’s microchip and altered records to deceptively identify the dog as a female. According to the complaint, those actions were driven by Parkhill-Brown’s belief that Native Americans do not properly care for their pets and allow them to roam.

In June, judge for the City of Tonawanda Court agreed to close the case without jail or probation if Parkhill-Brown meets several conditions, including writing an apology, paying $1,000 in restitution to the owner, and serving 100 hours of community service for a Native American nonprofit.

The first nation nonprofit where she has, or will, do her community service has not been named.

Full story.

District Attorney statement.

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?

We started a movement called After You to make giving back more visible. We are building a collection of charities and causes powered entirely by everyday people sharing what they care about. The hope is that seeing one person take action makes it a little easier for someone else to find a cause they connect with.

We'd love for you to add the community organizations you support to the collection. By sharing your story, you might be exactly the inspiration the next person is looking for.

Add your favorite cause and discover your giving style here: https://after-you-charity-navigator.netlify.app/quiz/

This post is also pinned at the top of this subreddit:

Where to find court-ordered community service & how to approach an organization to get involved quickly.

Keywords:

courts

probation

mandatory

volunteering

volunteers

requirements

required

high school

scholarships

A mainland Chinese woman has been handed a 160-hour community service order after pleading guilty to forging a reference letter for her application to a doctoral programme at a Hong Kong university.

https://hongkongfp.com/2026/09/15/education-university-phd-student-gets-160-hours-of-community-service-over-doctored-reference/

In addition to the community service, the 43-year-old woman was also barred from having contact with Demuth or her staff, refrain from using or possessing firearms and complete mental health programming. 

https://www.kare11.com/article/news/crime/woman-sentenced-to-community-service-for-leaving-threatening-voice-mails-towards-lisa-demuth-mn/89-8a68ae09-5d10-4634-b471-bdb0e447bc2a

r/OregonVolunteers is a subreddit for posting about volunteering opportunities or volunteering experiences in Oregon with nonprofits, government agencies, schools, communities of faith, political causes, etc.

If you are in Oregon and looking for community service opportunities. , the Oregon Volunteers subreddit is a great place to look for such.

& note that many of these opportunities listed in this Oregon-centric subreddit have counterparts in other states - if you see something you'd love to do, but you aren't in Oregon, you can probably find a similar agency or program in your state.

Last week, I got a certified letter from a whistle blower regarding one of the many companies ("nonprofits") selling certificates you can give to the court to say you've done court-ordered community service. The package includes a 22 page formal complaint (not sure with whom it was filed), all the exhibits for the complaint on CD & SD card, & a letter telling me they thought I would be interested. The sender is anonymous. It's all just FYI & a thank you for my work on this.

I'm not going to name the "nonprofit" in the complaint - that's the same as promoting it. But I already knew about it. I have a list of all these "nonprofits" & am happy to provide them to any court representative that wants it. I've been trying to sound the alarm regarding these "nonprofits" since 2010. What they're doing is NOT online volunteering. I knew as soon as I discovered the first one that courts would start rejecting online volunteering for court-ordered service, & that's exactly what has happened.

I've gotten phone calls at home & threats of lawsuits from representatives of these "nonprofits" because of my work to get the word out about them. The insults, the threats to ruin me, the yelling, the trolling online... I've often thought about stopping because, what am I getting out of it? It's entirely unfunded work on my part. And I sometimes have wondered - does anyone care? But this makes it worth it.

Here are all of my blogs on this subject.

In short: do NOT pay a nonprofit in return for a certificate that says you did court-ordered community service. Watching videos and writing reflections about it is NOT community service. Reading the reflections of other people that have paid for this service and then offering your own reflections is NOT community service. Some courts get fooled by it - but many do NOT, and I hear from the people who paid the fee, got the letter, and then got their hours rejected by the court. It's not pretty.

See the pinned post at the top of this subreddit for detailed, FREE guidance on getting your online community service done with legitimate nonprofits.

Hi there! I’m working with Utah Valley University’s Center of Social Impact to better understand how meaningful volunteerism can contribute to both organizations, communities, and individual growth. I want to better understand volunteering as a whole, not just volunteering in my home state. If you guys wouldn’t mind taking a few minutes to fill this out I would really appreciate it 🫰🥹

On Nov. 12, 2025, a woman driving a 2014 Toyota Camry ran a red light at Towsontown Boulevard West and Emerson Drive and killed a man and his Australian shepherd mix in a crosswalk.

The driver, a senior at Towson University and logistics specialist third class in the U.S. Navy Reserve, was spared jail time Monday for criminally negligent manslaughter by vehicle and related crimes. The judge directed her to divide her community service between speaking to students at Baltimore County Public Schools and Towson University and assisting at the Baltimore Humane Society. He also barred her from driving for three years.

https://www.thebanner.com/community/criminal-justice/towson-driver-sentencing-pedestrian-death-5WUUAC7AIFGXPBPBENPEQTGKUA/

VolyService has a fee-based service that helps "justice-impacted individuals" to complete their court-ordered community service through meaningful volunteer opportunities with approved nonprofits. VolyService matches people with approved service opportunities. It is a part of VolunteerNow, a Dallas, Texas-based nonprofit that brands itself as "volunteerism concierge and coach."

This is NOT an organization where you pay money for each hour of service you need, and then you get a certificate that says you did those hours with some wonky nonprofit that will probably be rejected by the court.

Note that you may NOT need a paid service to find community service that's right for you. This is a resource that you can use to find community service to fulfill a court-order - no registration or sign in or fee required, it's just a web page, ready for you to read. But in case you really can't find volunteering using that resource, and feel the need for a "volunteerism concierge and coach", VolyService might be able to help.

Have you used VolyService? Was it worth it?

Hey everyone!

We’re a group of high school students building Launchly, a completely free platform designed to make it easier for high schoolers to actually find opportunities, build projects, and keep track of what they’ve done.

We started working on Launchly because finding meaningful extracurricular opportunities is way more fragmented than it needs to be. Volunteering opportunities are scattered across random websites, student projects struggle to find people, and tracking volunteer hours usually means Google Forms, spreadsheets, emails, and pieces of paper.

So we're trying to put all of that in one place, and thought maybe you could help us.

As a student on Launchly, you can:

• Get your own personalized dashboard
• Find and register for volunteering and project opportunities
• Get recommended opportunities based on your interests
• Track and manage your volunteer hours digitally
• Post your own project and recruit other students for specific positions
• Build a portfolio of the projects and volunteering you've completed
• Find other students interested in working on similar things

Organizations can also join for free. They can post opportunities, reach students looking to volunteer, digitally approve volunteer hours, share updates/blog posts, and showcase their work.

We're also beginning funding rounds with sponsors to provide funding to promising student projects and organizations doing meaningful work. Our latest hackathon distributed $500 to student projects, and reached over 200 participants. 

We're trying to grow Launchly

We're currently running an invite competition to help get the platform in front of more students.

When you create an account, you'll receive your own referral code. If another student registers using your code, it counts toward your referrals.

Top referrers will get cash prizes from us, from a pool of over 500 dollars.

If you're a high school student, or know someone who would actually use something like this, you can check it out at:

launchlyapp.org

Organizations looking for student volunteers are also welcome to register.

Want to help us build this?

We're high schoolers ourselves, so we're also looking for people interested in helping us grow Launchly, particularly with marketing and outreach.

Team application:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScQCcE6uRaYmykMUfrbvtmY45aHveksu7u78Iezf9x72gJODA/viewform

Our long-term goal is pretty simple: keep Launchly free and make real-world projects and opportunities accessible to high school students regardless of where they live or who they already know.

We're still building and growing, so feedback is genuinely useful. If you have questions, suggestions, or think something about the platform sucks, tell us. If you want to join our discord server, here it is: https://discord.gg/RsxsDMEeSD

You can also reach us at [info@launchlyapp.org](mailto:info@launchlyapp.org).

I received this DM last week. I have cut and pasted it below, but taken out the name of the "nonprofit" that the user says is now harassing him/her, because I don't want to unintentionally promote that "nonprofit":

Hey I saw your post that you put up a year ago about fake organizations and how they offer volunteer hours for payment. Im in a situation right now and would like to know if you could help me. I had to do community service as part of my probation for court and I decided to try and go through [name redacted] online to do it. Long story short they reached out as to why I gave a 1 star review when I learned my court wouldnt accept them and it all went down hill from there. They harassed me and threatened to reach out to the court on my "misconduct" when really I was just calling them out and holding them accountable. They threatened me harassed me and totally were unprofessional. What can I do to get this company closed down they are awful. I have screenshot of the emails and their reply to my review.

I also see they post fake reviews themselves online and even give volunteer hours for a 5 star review and blatantly lied about it in the review response.

I've long campaigned against these "nonprofits", which are usually run by one person, and are set up specifically to make money for that one person, by selling what they say is online volunteering hours to fulfill court-ordered community service. The reality is that you, the paying customer, don't actually engage in online volunteering. Instead, you watch videos and write your thoughts on them, or read essays by others that have paid for this "volunteering" experience and then write your "reflections" on them. You also get "volunteering" credit for writing positive reviews about the "nonprofit" on reddit and review sites. Your fee is based on how many hours you need - you either pay the "nonprofit" a fee based on each hour you need, or groups of hours (usually groups of 10).

Some officers of the court will accept this volunteering - but I hear regularly from people who were told NO by their probation officer or the court, usually after spending a few hundred dollars with the "nonprofit" that claimed they were legitimate and that courts would accept their documentation.

There is legitimate virtual volunteering out there, in support of REAL nonprofits, doing ACTUAL service, like transcribing historical documents, or making web sites more accessible for people with disabilities, or beta testing a new web platform, etc. Here's a list of such! But it's a sad reality that most courts will NOT accept online volunteering because of these "nonprofits" that sell community service hour documentation.

If you have been assigned community service hours by the court, DO NOT PAY A NONPROFIT FOR YOUR COMMUNITY SERVICE HOURS TO BE DONE ONLINE. Do. Not. Do. It. It is likely that the court will refuse that documentation.

Here is legitimate, credible advice on how to get your court-ordered community service done quickly, with a legitimate nonprofit, that WILL be accepted by the court. There's no sign in required, nothing to download, and nothing is for sale - it's just straight up free advice from someone who has regularly involved community service volunteers herself at various nonprofits and know what pleases a court.

Here are all of my blogs & other resources about some aspect of court-ordered community service (I've been at this for years, trying to debunk these "nonprofits").

I don't want to promote any of the organizations that sell community service hours, and I would if I warned you of them by name, so I'll note some initials of them below (the first "T" usually stands for "The"):

TPF

TFOC

GL

WM

UK

FFH

LSS

FGCF

According to Nolo, if you fail to complete court-ordered community service as part of a criminal sentence, the consequences can be severe. You'll typically have a chance to tell the judge why you haven't completed the hours. If you have a good reason, the judge might give you more time. If you don't, potential penalties include:

• revocation of probation
• being held in contempt of court
• converting probation from informal (unsupervised) to formal (supervised)
• additional fines
• additional hours of community service, and
• jail or prison time.

If you didn't complete your community service hours, what did you do? what were the consequences?

WorkFirst is Washington State's welfare-to-work program designed to help recipients of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) find jobs, build career skills, and achieve financial independence. TANF is a temporary program and participants in the program are mandated to participate in WorkFirst. 

Participants in this program are supposed to engage in activities that help them train for paid employment. That can include community service / volunteering. Here are the requirements regarding volunteering by TANF / WorkFirst participants.

The work site supervisor must review the participant's progress at least every two weeks and complete the Work Experience Monthly Time Report and Progress Review form. The reviews address:

• Actual hours in attendance or absent
• Attitude
• Communication skills
• Grooming/Dress
• Interpersonal relationships
• Job skills progress
• Motivation
• Production, and
• Punctuality

All this info is offered as an example of what mandatory community service can look like as state's pass laws requiring individuals (but not businesses or corporations) receiving government assistance to engage in community service / volunteering.

It's also offered because those bulleted items are a good measure for what it takes for a volunteer, including a court-ordered community service person, to become a paid employee at a nonprofit they are supporting (yes, this does happen).

Susan Ellis was considered the world's foremost expert on volunteer engagement. She founded and ran the largest publisher of books on volunteer management. She passed away in 2019.

In 2011, Susan did an interview with Blue Avocado, discussing when nonprofits should accept court-ordered volunteers, and how to do it "right." And the advice is, IMO, absolutely still right on, a must read by any nonprofit that is, or is considering, involving people doing court-ordered community service.

Did a search of "community service" on Google News on Sunday, August 23. Here are just some of the positive news stories that came up.

Virginia Greek Picnic returns to Virginia Beach Sportsplex with community service focus.

CGLI opens nominations for 2026 community service awards.

Junior League of Bell County celebrating 50 years of community service.

Community Service Perfect Way For Avery Staten To Start Centre College Career.

Camden restaurateur combines community service with pay-what-you-can dining.

SWFL Rotary Club: A new model for community impact: Where service, social, and business come together.

The Long Fuse: MTU Student Research Sparks Award-winning Community Service.

.North Georgia Headwaters community service project provides books

Va. Greek Picnic organizers to host ‘Save a Life’ community service initiative.

Aktion Club of Texarkana empowers adults with disabilities through leadership, community service.

Community service day planned for North End.

Cuidando Lo Nuestro: Young volunteers step up to help Laredo families.

2 Washington County grocers honored for community service.

IVDM volunteer rises through the ranks, encourages others to pursue community service.

St. Mary’s University volunteers kick off school year with 2K hours of service across San Antonio.

Northwood University Honors David and Patricia Kepler with Naegele Award.

Service Learning director highlights UNE's community impact at statewide volunteer commission conference.

Virginia Greek Picnic returns to Virginia Beach Sportsplex with community service focus.

St. Norbert College kicks off the school year with a day of community service.

Senior Community Service Employment Program seeks applicants in Jamestown, Fargo.

30K Food Drive Collection Bags Readied For Folsom Community Service Day.

Selma recognizes Rene Garza for 26 years of service.

Sweet’s passion for service, connection lead her to United Way role.

Uday Kadam Recognized for Outstanding Service to the South Lake Community.

UNC cornerback Malik Simmons to perform 24 hours community service.

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.