Community Service Definition

(as outlined in the Higher Education Act and its subsequent Reauthorizations)

Community services are defined as services that are identified by an institution of higher education through formal or informal consultation with local nonprofit, governmental, and community-based organizations, as designed to improve the quality of life for community residents, particularly low-income individuals, or to solve particular problems related to their needs. These services include:

1. Such fields as health care, child care, literacy training, education (including tutorial services), welfare, social services, transportation, housing and neighborhood improvement, public safety, crime prevention and control, recreation, rural development, and community improvement;
2. Work in service opportunities or youth corps as defined in section 101 of the National and Community Service Act of 1990*, and service in the agencies, institutions and activities designated in section 124(a) of that Act**;
3. Support services to students (other than an institution's own students) with disabilities; and
4. Activities in which a student serves as a mentor for such purposes as:
   1. Tutoring;
   2. Supporting educational and recreational activities; and
   3. Counseling, including career counseling.

*The definition of community services includes the terms "service opportunity" and "youth corps program." Section 101 of the National Community Service Act of 1990 defines the terms as follows:

* Service opportunity. A program or project, including a service learning program or project, that enables students or out-of-school youth to perform meaningful and constructive service in agencies, institutions, and situations where the application of human talent and dedication may help to meet human, educational, linguistic, and environmental community needs, especially those relating to poverty.

* Youth corps program. A program, such as a conservation corps or youth service program, that offers full-time, productive work (to be financed through stipends) with visible community benefits in a natural resource or human service setting and that gives participants a mix of work experience, basic and life skills, education, training, and support services.

**The definition of "community services" includes service in agencies, institutions, and activities that are designated in Section 124(a) of the National and Community Service Act of 1990. If your organization runs a conservation corps program or human service corps program as part of this Act, contact Student Employment and Housing Services to determine eligibility.