When community businesses, organizations and other partners provide youth with work service opportunities, they give them the chance to make a positive contribution to the community. For youth who have a court order to complete work service hours, the opportunity to make restitution to the community or victim to account for their actions is an important part of the learning process.
Through the community work service component of ICYS, community partners provide opportunities for youth to learn about responsibility and accountability and how to work with others. Youth have the opportunity to develop job skills and improve their employability through work service placements – a great benefit to youth as individuals and to the community as a whole.
At St. Leonard’s, we’ve learned the value of having youth positively engaged in the community. We’ve also learned that this engagement can lead to youth making an ongoing contribution to the community.
Establishing Work Service Placements
We work in partnership with community businesses and organizations to establish meaningful and educational work service placements. The duration of each work service placement varies, and is specified in the court order.Working directly with the youth, the probation officer and the police, we determine the type of work service that should be assigned and discuss the specifics of each placement. We make sure that the placement chosen is a good fit for the community partner and that it is also appropriate to the youth’s offense.
Support Throughout the Work Service Placement
We supervise the completion of the work service hours and offer support to address any issues that may arise during the assignment. Throughout the work service placement, we stay closely involved, gathering feedback from the community partner on the youth’s performance to help identify areas of strength and areas that may need improvement.
Encouraging Personal Accountability
Teaching youth about accountability and helping them to recognize the consequences of their actions are key elements of the work service program. We encourage them to take responsibility for their actions by considering the impact of their offense on the victim, the community and on themselves. By helping youth develop skills during the work service placement, we also help them build confidence and self-esteem, which in turn helps them see how they can begin to make better choices to live a healthier and more productive life.
Interested in Offering a Work Service Placement?
To make work service opportunities a reality, we need the help of community partners who believe in giving young people a chance to improve their lives. We are looking for work service opportunities that can take place after school, on weekends and in the evenings. Work service assignments range from 10 hours to 120 hours, and we welcome organizations and businesses interested in offering a placement to contact us at 604-298-1515.