Community Service
Community Service Hours
For more information about requirements please visit: Community Involvement Hours
Community Involvement Hours can be uploaded here.
In order to graduate with an Ontario Secondary School Diploma (OSSD), students must complete 40 community service hours. Students arriving in Ontario after grade 9 must complete a pro-rated 10 hours per year. Students may begin earning community hours in the summer preceding the start of Grade 9.
Eligibility
The HDSB guide to community service hours gives an overview of the requirement. This guide is summarized in this presentation. Before starting an activity, students should make sure that the activity is eligible by consulting the HDSB Policy.
In general, activities associated with non-profit, community-based agencies that occur outside of the regular school day are eligible. Activities that would normally be performed for wages by a person in the workplace are ineligible. If you are not sure, talk to your guidance counselor BEFORE starting the activity.
Evidence
Some organizations will provide a form letter on completion of hours, however, any document that includes:
student name
supervisor name
contact information
total number of hours
duties performed
name of the organization
ALP/IB Students
It is recommended that students intending to enter the IB Diploma Program in Grade 11 complete all 40 of their Community Service Hours by the end of Grade 10. This is because IB students are required to complete 150 CAS hours which is in addition to the 40 Community Service Hours required for the OSSD. Information about the CAS requirement is available here.
Opportunities
Students looking for volunteer opportunities can consult the bulletin boards outside of South Student Services or WOSSpportunities, as blog where we post a variety of different out-of-school opportunities. Eligible activities will be tagged “Volunteer”.