Community service is unpaid work performed by a person or group of people for the benefit and betterment of their community. In many cases, people doing community service are compensated in other ways, such as those helping getting a lunch for free. In many countries, there are programs to incite people to do community service. People may do community service to get citizenship. In some cases, it is possible to replace a criminal justice sanctions with community service. There may also be school or class requirements. Obtaining certain benefits may be linked to doing some form of community service. For all these reasons, it is distinct from volunteering.
Ukrainians doing street cleaning as a form of community service.
Community service work detail for 35th District Court, Northville, Michigan
Volunteering is a voluntary act of an individual or group freely giving time and labor, often for community service. Many volunteers are specifically trained in the areas they work, such as medicine, education, or emergency rescue. Others serve on an as-needed basis, such as in response to a natural disaster.
Volunteers of Vilnius Marathon
Volunteers sweep the boardwalk in Brooklyn after the 2012 Hurricane Sandy
Semi-professional volunteering: Trained lifeguards of the German DLRG, the largest voluntary water rescue organization in the world, patrolling a public bathing area of a lake in Munich
Volunteers from around the world came to Ithaca, Queensland to address an influenza epidemic through the Women's Emergency Corps (later the Women's Volunteer Reserve) in July 1919.
