Can Mandatory Community Service Work?

Lots of organizations coordinate youth community service work. And you would be hard pressed to find anyone who would oppose the idea of kids pitching in and helping out make the community a better place for everybody to live. It's good for the community because we are using that boundless energy and physical stamina of youth for a good cause. It's good for the causes helped because there is no end of work to be done. And it's good for the kids because it helps them think about other people, it gives them a strong sense of self-esteem and it helps them learn new skills and meet others in the community they might never meet otherwise.

But when those in leadership at the local, state or national level propose some form of uniform mandatory community service for youth that seems to change the nature of the program so dramatically that the discussion turns sour pretty fast.

It might be that the term "mandatory community service" has a negative connotation because so often, that is part of the sentencing of someone who has run afoul of the law and is given so many hundred hours of community service to pay back their debt to society. So if we are going to implement any form of mandatory community service for teenagers or kids on our society, we need to think it through and take advantage or programs that have successfully mandated community service for kids and have had success.

There are ample examples of youth organizations that have worked community service into their programs so successfully that the youth perform the service with enthusiasm and actually have a lot of fun with it. And that is the spirit you want everyone to have on a community service project, adult and youth alike. Often times voluntary school programs such as band, academic clubs, other competitive societies such as chess or debate clubs will include a form of community service as part of the requirements for membership. The service can be integrated with the activity such as having the chess club members spend a day a month at the shelter teaching chess to homeless kids. The youth associate their ambitions to become great at the skill they are seeking with sharing that skill with others.

Churches and youth organizations not affiliated with schools also have great success with community service. When you see a church youth group outside the walls of the church, you can bet they are probably busy painting someone's porch, feeding the less fortunate or doing something of value for the community. The church can put a positive slant on it that fits with the mission of the organization by calling it a "mission to our own town" but the outcome is the same.

One of the most outstanding examples of an organization that turns community service into a value that is eagerly sought by their youth is the Boy Scouts of America. In Boy Scouts, the young men must complete a certain number of hours of organized "service hours" to make the next rank in scouting. The program places a high value on advancing in rank, which is rewarded with pomp and circumstance during the advancement ceremony and badges for their uniforms, which young men pursue with zeal.

The key is to tie the community service to something the youth want to do. If the mandatory community service is integrated with advancement, achievement and rewards, the short term "pay off" is all a kid needs to roll their sleeves up and get in there and work. And if they have fun side by side with adults they admire, you have a formula for a program of mandatory community service for youth that is sure to be a success.

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