Community Service

Students on the Lower Campus are involved in community outreach and missions in a variety of ways. Each homeroom selects a special outreach project for the year for its class. The K-6 Student Council sponsors a number of campus-wide projects, including Operation Christmas Child, a food drive, collection of toys, hygiene items, and other items to give to local or mission groups. Groups of students provide prayer support and write letters for several military personnel and nursing homes.

High School Community Service Graduation Requirement
As a result of the value placed on developing a heart for service, GRACE requires all high school students to complete a minimum of 20 hours of community service each year they attend GRACE. Students are encouraged to exceed this minimum threshold and GRACE will maintain a record of all community service hours submitted.

Community Emphasis
GRACE encourages students to complete 10 service hours each year outside of our school and the student’s local church. To assist students in achieving this goal GRACE encourages student involvement in local ministries in our community. This site http://activategood.org/ is a hub for organizations needing volunteers and a great resource for GRACE families to find service opportunities in our community.

Service Guidelines

NHS Service: NHS students may not double count their required service and tutoring hours to satisfy the NHS requirement of service and the GRACE graduation requirement at the same time.

Mission Trips: GRACE encourages students to experience the unique blessings and benefits that come with being part of a mission trip. Students who participate in a mission trip (with GRACE or another organization) may report 8 hours of community service per day of their trip, excluding travel days.

Receipt of Compensation: For a task to count as service, no monetary compensation can be received.

Serving in the Home: Service inside the home is a wonderful expression of family commitment; however, household chores, babysitting, and similar family activities do not count toward the graduation requirement for community service.

GRACE Athletics / Team Managers: Team Managers are recognized as a part of the athletic team and cannot submit service hours for this role.

GRACE Athletics / Volunteering: Students who volunteer to work concessions at games, staff the admissions table, announce, live stream, or run the game clock may receive service hour credit.

GRACE Events: Throughout the year, students may have opportunities to earn community service credit by serving at a GRACE event. These opportunities will be communicated to the students as they arise.

GRACE Electives: Some fine arts elective classes involve committing to performances/events outside of normal school hours. These events are considered part of the instruction of the class and should not be submitted as service hours.

Documenting Service Hours
To receive credit for community service, the student must have an adult supervise the service and sign the community service form or Givefinity app for the hours. Note: Parents should not sign off as the student’s supervisor for community service. Students have two options for tracking and submitting their service hours. Both methods require students to set up a Givefinity account. Instructions are available HERE.

Enter your hours in the Givefinity app. (Instructions and Examples)

Submit a Community Service Form to the office for each organization you are serving. Repetitive service for the same organization (weekly volunteering) may be listed on one form with appropriate dates and hours noted and should be submitted in a timely manner.

Students can check the number of hours they have accumulated by logging in to Givefinity. For record-keeping purposes, community service hours for a given year begin June 1 and run through end of May each year.

GRACE students have volunteered with the following organizations. These are good places to start if you're looking for service opportunities: