Junior Community Service Program Policies

JUNIOR YEAR COMMUNITY SERVICE PROGRAM POLICIES

St. Joseph Regional High School: 2016-2017

Purpose:

The program is designed to sensitize students to the needs of others in their communities—especially children, the elderly, the disadvantaged, and the handicapped. Through their volunteer efforts, students will spiritually mature as they learn that serving others is at the heart of the Gospel.

Requirements:

Students are required to do 30 hours of service during their junior year. They may include service hours done during the preceding summer, starting with the day after their last day of school. The requirements are divided as follows:

1st and 4th Marking Periods: 5 hours each

2nd and 3rd Marking Period: 10 hours each

Students may complete all 30 hours up front or any time before the required deadlines. If they do, then they will receive a 100 for any remaining marking periods. Any hours over the requirement for a given marking period will be applied to the next marking period. If a student is missing any hours by a deadline, time submitted after that deadline will first be applied to the previous quarter(s). Credited hours are running totals each marking period: 5 hours (1st), 15 hours (2nd), 25 hours (3rd), 30 hours (4th).

Grading System:

Students will receive a grade based on the number of hours completed by the deadlines:

Do not use this breakdown as an excuse to do less than 30 hours. These grades reflect the number of hours submitted by the deadlines. There is a penalty of 5 points per day for paperwork that is late or incomplete.

Paperwork:

Students should fill out a separate form for each organization they serve. Multiple dates/times done at one site should be put on the same form. The form has sections to be filled out by the student andhis volunteer supervisor. Paperwork must be neat and legible.Fill in ALL of the requested information.Students may not sign off on anyone’s service hours. If you have a letter from your organization, you still have to fill out the front side of the Documentation Form. The letter will serve as the back side. Completed forms are to be given to Mr. Peters in Room 205. Deadlines for all paperwork are as follows:

Signed Policies Sheet: Friday, September 16, 2016 (20% of 1st quarter grade; late = point deduction)

1stMarking Period: Thursday, October 20, 2016

2ndMarking Period: Wednesday, January 4, 2017

3rdMarking Period: Thursday, March 16, 2017

4thMarking Period: Thursday, June 1, 2017

Qualifying Service:

All projects must benefit people, not animals. The projects must be above and beyond a student’s (a) family responsibilities, both immediate (father, mother, sister, brother) and extended (grandparents, cousins, aunts, uncles) and (b) responsibilities as a member of a school or community group (e.g., National Honor Society, Student Government, sports programs). Students may complete up to 10 hours for the year doing service projects that directly benefit our school (“in-house” hours). The remaining 20 hours must be done for the benefit of a community or agency other than St. Joe’s. You may not be absent from school or leave school early to do service hours.Students who do an Eagle Scout Project or who work at the Marist summer camp at Esopus will not have to do additional hours for St. Joe’s, but they must still submit the necessary paperwork to Mr. Peters to receive credit for their service.

Non-Qualifying Service:

The following types of work do not count towards your service hours: any work for which you receive payment or remuneration; helping any for-profit business (including doctors); helping arelative “at the office”;tutoring;helping political organizations (unless they are sponsoring a charitable event that helps the whole community); helping neighbors with any work they can do themselves and/or afford to pay someone to do it; and helping students older than 8th grade (unless they are handicapped). Your service must benefit the community at large, elderly, handicapped, and/or disadvantaged people.Doing something “for free” doesnot automatically qualify it as community service. It is your responsibility to know what counts and what doesn’t.If there is any doubt about what qualifies, the student should see Mr. Peters before doing a project.

NOTE WELL: St. Joe’s summer camps cannot be used for community service. Also, your coaches are not authorized to determine what qualifies for Community Service. Please see Mr. Peters for that.

Suggestions for Service Hours:

Students are expected to take a hands-on approach to their service projects and should thus identify their own projects and sites. This approach allows the students to choose projects suitedto their own tastes and schedules without them being “forced” into any type of service. Some suggested projects are as follows:

Community Service

blood bank, CCD teacher or aide, charity organization, coaching grammar school children (nothing beyond 8th grade), elderly people (e.g., nursing home, assisted living facility), E.M.T. (ambulance), environmental clean-up, fire department, food kitchen or pantry, Habitat for Humanity, handicapped people (e.g., Special Olympics), homeless shelter, hospital volunteer, parish volunteer (altar server, general help, retreat team, Youth Group, etc.), police department, public library, any drive conducted for needy people

Any service done for an elderly neighbor is subject to approvalfor your hours to count.

School Service

Craft Show, Fashion Show, Freshman Community Night, Open House tour guide, stage crew

Any program or drive sponsored by our school’s Campus Ministry Program counts as community service. If an outside agency (e.g., school, church, charitable organization, community food bank) is the recipient of our efforts, then those hours do not count towards the “in house” limit.

Extensions on Deadlines:

Deadline extensions occur rarely, and requests will be assessed on an as-needed basis. Any extension must be approved by Mr. Peters before the deadline. Students who have busy schedules because of extra-curricular activities cannot get an extension on that basis. It is the student’s responsibility to ensure that paperwork left with a supervisor for a signature is returned by the deadline.

I have read the above information about the Junior Community Service Program and I understand what my responsibilities are in order to fulfill this graduation requirement.

Student Signature ______Date ______

Student Name (print) ______

I understand what is expected of my son in order to complete the Community Service requirements.

Parent/Guardian Signature ______Date ______