40 HOURS - EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING
Every student in Ontario must perform 40 hours of Community Involvement in order to graduate from High School. It's hoped that this experience will guide students toward a lifetime of volunteering in the effort to create strong and caring communities.
It is important to understand that students are not earning Volunteer Hours, but are performing Community Service. In other words, not all volunteering is Community Service (e.g. volunteering in a doctor's office, or at a private dance studio). These sorts of activites will not qualify for the the 40 hours as they are businesses, and as such the owner of the business and the person volunteering benefit, but not the community.
"Volunteers don't get paid, not because they're worthless, but because they're priceless." ~Sherry Anderson
Recording of Community Involvement Hours
Please see Mrs. T. Lemieux, the Secretary of Student Services for the appropriate form
Read the information below BEFORE beginning any Community Service Activity
Activities that ARE ELIGIBLE are;
- Work for a non-profit organization
- Tutoring or mentoring
- Coaching
- Work for clubs, religious groups, arts & cultural associations, or political organizations that seek to make a positive & ethical contribution in the community.
Activities that are NOTELIGIBLE are;
- work completed during your regular class time
- work that is required as part of one of your classes
- work that would normally be performed by someone who is paid (in other words, you cannot volunteer to help a person or business in order to help them earn or save money)
- work that provides direct financial gain to the student, or the student's immediate family
REMEMBER – Community Service means you should be giving of yourself for the betterment of our community.
Possible opportunities to volunteer include the following organizations / places. This list is by no means complete... there are many many opportunities!!
Websites with Opportunities