Community Service

Community service is any work that benefits the community and is performed by one person or a group of people. The reasons behind it may vary from person to citizenship or school and college graduation requirements or as a substitution for a penalty of some juvenile or other crimes. It is performed for the needy and destitute or disabled people, senior citizens, or to help animals of your community and is not a paid service. It is often organized with the help of a local group.  

A professor defined community service as a student-centered form of teaching, only with less lectures and more interactive healthy discussions as it engages them in self-reflection, builds their character, and teaches them how to apply whatever they have learned until now to solve the issues they see around them and give back to the community and be responsible and active citizens of their State.  

Benefits of Community Service

Community Service helps in the personal, interpersonal and cognitive growth of students and equips them with the basic knowledge required to understand the world around them. It makes them aware of the needs of the community and the role they can play to fulfill them and have a positive impact on society and reflect on their efforts in the future.

Some of the most common benefits of taking part in any community service project are as follows:

1. The psychological benefits include increased feelings of satisfaction by a person after helping someone else. It increases their confidence. It also helps reduce stress, anxiety and fight depression.
2. The social benefits include an increase in the students’ engagement with the members of their community, connect and develop bonds with them, increase social awareness about the community needs and the civic and social responsibility they have.
3. The cognitive benefits include personal growth from the new experiences, development of better interpersonal and communication skills.
4. The career prospects of the students participating in the community service also get better as it allows them to step up to leadership positions within organizations. The chances of them getting good employments, getting work-related skills, building good references and networks with potential employers.
5.  Some other skills that get developed in the students or other people performing community service include leadership skills, conflict management, time management, problem-solving, collaboration, and teamwork.
6. It helps people develop a more profound understanding of the world they live in and realize how their efforts can make a difference in someone else’s life. They learn tolerance, empathy and compassion as they develop a global perspective.