Community Involvement - 40 Hours

All secondary students in the province of Ontario are required to complete a minimum of 40 hours of community service in order to graduate. The forms and additional information are provided below.

Students may wish to consider virtual volunteering, such as connecting with seniors, organizing virtual fundraising events and facilitating discussions with newcomer youth. Outdoor volunteer opportunities could include, for example, picking up litter.

Volunteer opportunities, such as connecting young people to be technology mentors to seniors, can be found through agencies such as Spark Ontario.

In addition, the Ministry has developed a list of activities that may not be chosen as community involvement that include activities that are a course requirement, activities that would normally be paid work and duties that would normally be performed at home. See the full list here.

Schools will follow Grand Erie’s processes for collecting, recording, and validating hours. 
 

Benefits of 40 Hours of Community Involvement

• Gain valuable experience working with volunteer groups.
• Learn about service to people and organizations.
• Fulfill the compulsory diploma requirement.
   

Notification of Completion of Community Involvement Activities Form

Students should print this form and bring the completed copy to their school.

• Notification of Completion of Community Involvement Activities (PDF)

Grand Erie’s liability insurance policy protects students and community sponsors from litigation arising during the forty hours of community activities, other than those involving negligence.

Workplace or other accident insurance is not provided under the Board’s insurance policy. Parents should consider purchasing student accident insurance if personal coverage is insufficient.

For more information and to obtain insurance, see Students and Accidents information.