Community Service Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

Community Service - Essay Example Community Service When magistrates compel first time law breakers to undertake community service, they aim at promoting discipline and advocating for reform that will restrain the law-breaker from repeating the offence (Godhbole). Community service is aimed at the development of the community where a volunteer or philanthropist, or a group of people may get into projects such as to teach children from less fortunate backgrounds, help build homes, clean and attend to the elderly in homes, clean the streets, plant trees, fix public utilities or assist in animal shelters. Institutes of education tend to direct young people to community service so that they can develop a sense of purpose for their lives as they progress to other levels and overall to groom their personalities. Philanthropists, who are people that are involved in making the society better through various works of donations, usually create foundations that focus on the problems which often affect the society, such as education or environmen t (Daniel). One of the biggest advantages of community service is that it creates within a community the ability to do things together that would seem overwhelming to an individual. For example, if a person notices there is a piece of land that is neglected and that this land would look better with trees and flowers, these persons can decide to come together with their friends and start a beautification activity. The activities of such persons may inspire others within the community to decide to join together to make similar projects. As a result, this may ignite a chain reaction where many people may end up working together to turn a single activity started by others, into a project that covers the entire community. Community service projects has the effect of bringing people together and this turns into a spirit of togetherness and caring for one another, and the environment in which they live (Arrington). My own personal experience working in community service took place when I v olunteered to work in a Buddhist temple for several months. The activities that I took part in included serving lunch, cleaning the temple and statues, and directing people to the different prayer sessions. It was an experience that was fulfilling for me as it taught me the importance of spirituality. I got the opportunity to interact with the priests who gave me an opportunity to help people from different occupations and many backgrounds. The way the priests lead such simple lives inspired me and interacting with ordinary people emulating their lives made it seem achievable. I developed a sense of discipline from following the schedule of the activities at the temple as they were adhered to strictly. In addition, the community service gave me a chance to expose myself to people of different backgrounds, cultures and ages. The experience of community work in the Buddhist temple exposed me to a process of learning that was beyond the formal idea of learning. The practice accorded me the opportunity to explore areas of knowledge that I had not encountered in the formal learning processes. The understanding and practice of community service usually involves an awareness of the real things that make up the social order in the world of those who