Court Mandated Service
A Sentence Worth Serving - Courts frequently assign community service as an alternative sentence to a large fine or even jail time. With this system, it can be easy to see your volunteer duty as a punishment, but it is important to recognize that volunteering can mean much more than just fulfilling your requirements. You might just be pleasantly surprised with the many benefits to performing community volunteer service. A few worth mentioning include:
- You may be gaining valuable job skills,
- You'll be meeting new people, and
- You'll get a feeling a sense of accomplishment and pride in helping your community.
The VCRI database has hundreds of volunteer opportunities available, so take some time to look through and find a cause that is important to you or an activity that you will enjoy. Click here to view all opportunties listed on our site offered by organizations that are familiar with working with volunteers required to court mandated service. Note that any opportuntiy with the "gavel" icon 
assigned to it fits this catagory.
Please review the tips listed below to help you select the right volunteer opportunity to meet your interests and your service requirement.
Start looking for a place to volunteer as soon as possible after receiving your service assignment. Very rarely can you jump right into a volunteer project the day or week you start contacting organizations, so you will want to give yourself plenty of time.
Many nonprofit agencies are small and short staffed, so it may take them a few days to respond to you
Most agencies will require you to fill out an application and complete an interview prior to volunteering, both of which may take some time.
Be open and honest about your reason for volunteering, how much volunteer time you plan to complete, and what paperwork you will need the volunteer manager to fill out.
Many volunteer opportunities will require training before you can start, especially at larger organizations like hospitals. Be sure to ask about training requirements when speaking with the volunteer manager.
Certain types of volunteer projects are easier to jump into without much training – food pantries, soup kitchens, outdoor/clean-up projects, large-scale special events and fundraisers.
Be aware that due to liability reasons, some organizations are not able to work with court-mandated volunteers, particularly those organizations that work with children or senior citizens.
- Some organizations are more flexible than others on this policy, so if a project you are interested in does not indicate that it is open to court-mandated volunteers, you may want to contact the organization’s volunteer manager to discuss the issue, particularly if your offence is minor.
There are several ways that you can get started searching for a volunteer project through the VCRI website:
- Register as a volunteer – this allows you to fill out a volunteer profile about where you want to volunteer, what skills you have to offer and what causes interest you.
- Once the profile is complete, you can have matching volunteer projects emailed to you.
- If you need to provide documentation that you are working on finding a volunteer placement, these registration pages can be printed out.
- While VCRI cannot sign off that you have completed your volunteer hours, the VCRI website can be used to log your volunteer hours for your own tracking purposes.
- All volunteer projects that accept volunteers who are completing court ordered community service are marked with a court icon. Visit our full list of community service options by clicking here
- Complete a basic or full search to narrow down your volunteer opportunities and find the best match
- Visit our volunteer calendar for upcoming one-time or short-term volunteer projects.
