The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) has received funding for the Community Service Grant Program  (CSGP) to establish and carry out programs under which students perform community service during the period of their suspension or expulsion from school.  The program is part of the No Child Left Behind legislation under Title IV, Part A Subpart b, Section 4126, Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities. 

 

The purpose of CSGP is to provide community service programs for suspended or expelled students that engage students in meaningful service activities to help them avoid negative behavior and teach them the value of service to others and their community.  Community service is not punitive or compensatory, but rather rehabilitative and designed to help students apply the appropriate skills, attributes, and behaviors they need to learn and function as positive, contributing members of the community. 

 

Community service programs may encompass a variety of activities, such as volunteering at local homeless shelters, providing sanitation and community clean-up, or working with the elderly.  Program activities may or may not be related to a student’s future career choice.  However, when students are given the opportunity to participate in the community service selection process, they are more receptive and feel better about performing the community service activity.  Funding provided through CSGP will not support curriculum-based community service that contains specific academic objectives.  Students may earn course credits for the period of time that they are performing community service, based on each district’s school board policy on community service.

 

Community service programs must be based on scientific research and promising practices and provide meaningful activities that meet real community needs.  The community service experience should promote character development in such areas as cooperation, respect, responsibility, self-control, and communication.  It should develop self-esteem and personal efficacy.  Students must have structured time to reflect on the community service experience.  Reflection and debriefing activities provide opportunities for students to give and receive feedback and continually choose or adjust the direction of their lives. 

 

The overarching thrust of the CSGP is to engage students in community service to strengthen their social skills, teach them the value of service to others and to their communities, and help them avoid negative behaviors.  Recent research demonstrates that community service has a positive impact on student achievement, increased resilience, and improved engagement in school.  Through a collaborative approach to meeting the personal needs of suspended or expelled students, the CSGP should enhance local capacity to provide community service programs in which students give back to their communities, practice appropriate skills and behaviors, and successfully transition back to the education mainstream.