Community Service by any other name, just isn't the same....

Community Service:

1. Services volunteered by individuals or an organization to benefit a community or its institutions.
2. Punishment requiring convicted persons to perform unpaid work for community instead of serving a term of imprisonment.

Many education institutions require high school students to perform an allotment of community service hours in order to graduate. So how is it that after all this time (I had to do it when I was in high school) are they still calling it community service. Moreover, why hasn't anyone figured out that there is a fine line that a teenager looks at this as a type of punishment. Hence, the published definition of the term. 

I can't quite remember what my options were for completing my service hours other than the fact that I'm fairly certain I chose what seemed to be the easiest, most exciting, and something I could choke down quickly and painlessly. I volunteered at a nursing home.

Enough said, if you know me well. A nursing home? This sounded like I was being shipped to a Turkish prison.

Fast forward to 2012 when I now have a daughter who needs to complete service hours in order to graduate.

I have been racking my brain as to what my child who has no "bedside manner", nor compassion for adults, much less anyone for that matter. She's a teenager remember. She's been abducted to another planet, and according to other parents I know, will not be shipped back to earth until mid college.  So how am I supposed to get her to do something nice for someone else.  

This, my fellow parents, is when a light bulb went off. Why can't these kids (Brentwood High School students specifically) have more options to help out a "neighbor" with something they're actually interested in, that they're good at, and that they will learn from. Most importantly, and what I figured the whole point of this project is about, to have these kids walk away from this experience with a new-found soft spot for helping someone in need. 

I have a simple solution to solve this problem. I have a history of working for several non-profits, so I have it all figured out. You have a high school student or students volunteer as the "coordinators" for this project. This is when the coordinators or students 'advertise' the new program they are starting in the newsletter sent out by the City of Brentwood.

It is almost along the lines of the blurb about the available home improvement funds through the Community Development Block Grant.  You apply, your application gets added to a book of options (perhaps in plastic sleeves).

For example; you might have a single mom in Brentwood Forest, without funds, to hire someone who needs some help from a strong teenage boy moving her furniture around. You might have an elderly woman who has no clue how to send an email and needs a little tutoring of her computer. You might have a single dad who has no clue how to decorate his daughter’s bedroom. You might have a single mom with a broken back and bursitis who needs a little help cleaning up the yard. You might have an elderly man who knows how to hang crown molding, has the materials, but just needs a little helping hand. You might have a mom who could use a mother's helper to spend time with her young kids teaching/tutoring them how to read or practice their addition tables.

All of these scenarios are real and true. We also all know that there are several people on limited incomes, in Brentwood. I can't tell you all of the single parent households I hear of on a daily basis here. They may not be able to afford that tutor, or the carpenter, or the painter, or the gardener, or the computer guru.

This way, the kids are able to do something they are knowledgeable about, are interested in, and can actually walk away feeling good about what they've accomplished. Further more, I feel like this is something they can get excited about and looks much better than, "I changed a set of sheets and stood around and gossiped to avoid doing anything since I didn't want to be there in the first place" on their college applications. Better yet, the kid who really has no clue what to do with his/her life who decides, "hey, carpentry seems to be a great talent of mine" or "I really enjoy the botany of how seeds germinate that I tried out for the first time while helping out so and so in her new garden I helped build...I think I might major in science".

Whether this could work or not, I had three lovely young men, Jack Yancey of Madge, James Taylor of Bridgeport, and Dominic Noah of Patton come to my house and rake leaves. All on their own accord because I was unable to. I can guarantee they left feeling a lot better about that than I did eluding the management of the nursing home I was stuck in as if I was trying to escape from Alcatraz...until next time...