What is Community Service?

Helping a Community Thrive

Community service is exactly what it sounds like: an act of service for your community; whenever you help out members of your community—schools, businesses, restaurants, your neighbors, you're doing community service! That also includes helping a neighbor rake their leaves or mow their lawn. 🍁

By serving a community, you can help it prosper. There are many benefits to community service, and we'll walk you through how to find opportunities within your local or regional communities. 🌎

1 What defines a community?

A community is any place where people consolidate together or share a common characteristic. This can be very local, like your town or school area, and can also be very global! 🗼

Examples of global communities are LOIF (L'organisation internationale de la Francophone - AKA the French-speaking community) and Fiveable's Student Community on Discord! In more simple terms, people make a community, and people doing community service helps upkeep communities! 💖

2 What is the difference between community service and a job?

The difference between community service and job responsibilities can get a little muddy, mainly if the job includes service-like responsibilities (like you are a part of a lawn-mowing company). However, there is one main difference: Community service is voluntary, and there are no incentives like money involved in community service! 💵

3 What are the benefits of community service?

Two parties benefit from community service: the community and you! Let's take a look at the various benefits that community service provides.

Benefits for the Community:

• More successful fundraisers and events

• Improved environment

• The community becomes more interconnected

Benefits for the Volunteer:

• Leadership skills

• Communication skills

• Problem-Solving

• Time Management

• Looks awesome on applications

Let’s go into depth on a few of these!

Benefits for the Community 

As stated earlier, communities are made of people. Without people to serve it, it won't function properly! Many schools host seasonal events for their students but don't have enough available school staff. By utilizing volunteers, volunteer coordinators have an easier time planning events because numbers aren't an issue! Fundraisers also go much better when people are there to make the process smoother. 🤩

When communities can host multiple events, people can attend more and create lasting bonds with their neighbors and friends! Volunteerism and community service have an enormous ability to connect community members! 🤝

Benefits for You 

Volunteering is one of the best ways to get to know a community. Getting that behind-the-scenes look into an event is a fantastic way to know the community's unsung heroes. Not only do you need to go out of your way to find events to volunteer at, which boosts time management skills, you never really know what you're getting into! Serving a community will make you better at thinking on your feet and solving problems. 🧠 

Volunteer work also looks incredible on college and job applications! Caring about a community means a lot, and displaying service experience shows employers and admissions officers that you can contribute to the college/work community! ✅

Finding Your Community

Now that you know all the benefits of volunteering, the next step is figuring out where to volunteer!

To find opportunities for community service, you should...

• Visit community hubs like schools, libraries, and local restaurants!

• Go to your local service club!

• Look on the world wide web!

Let’s expand these concepts!

1 Take a walk through your community!

They say that eyes are the windows to the soul, and in smaller communities, windows are windows to the community. Maybe it doesn't roll off the tongue as well, but the sentiment remains: local businesses always have posters of opportunities hanging up! Local plays, fundraisers, and events plaster many walls and windows. Taking a virtual walk, like searching "events in ____" also works wonders. 📭

2 Visit with your local service club!

There is some sort of service-oriented club in most schools—that could be something like Key Club, Leo Club, Service Club, or even National Honors Society! By joining and going to some meetings, they will almost always have an available event to promote. 🔑

If you don’t go to school or don’t have a school-based service club, consider finding local clubs like Kiwanis or Lion Club. 🦁

3 If none of the above applies, do not fret! We have the world wide web at our disposal! 

Especially during the rise of the pandemic, volunteer service has gotten more and more common on the internet! So many different companies and organizations have opportunities that can be done in person, online, or a hybrid of both! 💻

One example of community service is volunteering with Fiveable. The community is constantly hosting events and could always use some help! 👌

Moving Forward in Community

It might seem a little daunting if you're just about to start on your community service journey. We hope that defining different ways to help serve have eased your worries. Keep in mind that your work, brief or extensive, has already benefited the community. 😄

Volunteers are greatly appreciated, and we hope that you start looking! Best of luck with volunteering—go help your communities thrive! ✨

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