Theme
Participating in community service outfits students with the opportunity to wind up powerful people from their area and has a continuing, constructive outcome on society (Epstein 2018). Community service or volunteerism engages students to increase key capacities and data, and give a help to the people who require it most. Participating in community service not simply has any sort of impact to the affiliation and people being served, yet what’s more has any sort of impact to each student’s work prospects. It moreover empowers students to make urban and social obligation capacities and end up being more aware of what their region require (Flanagan et al. 2015).
Serving the community is one of the important activities that can increase awareness about the society at one hand and on the other make individual person more responsible. The participation in such activities increases social interaction and understanding about fellow human beings. Choosing a particular community service is also important which must be aligned with the nature of the individual person. The particular community activity taken up in this case is cleaning up the neighbourhood recreational area which has been lying unclean and dirty for a long time. The recreational area has been full of grass and has not been maintained or cleaned for a long time, however the area could be used by the residents for various recreational purposes.
Cleanliness of Neighbourhood Recreational Area Invites Cheerfulness among the residents and the children.
Recreational areas are important in residential zones for the recreational activities of children and the elderly. In schools as well there are recreational zones and playgrounds that are required to give children break from rigorous study schedule. The recreational area in this neighbourhood school had not been maintained for a long time. Long unkempt grasses, littered grounds and clogged drains have been problems in the playground and recreational area. Children were also facing several health issues due to these problems (Solo-Gabriele 2015). Therefore it was decided that the area will be cleaned and restored to be usable for the children.
The community service started on the day of 25th June 2018. The beginning time was 10:00 a.m in the morning and the activity ended at 2 p.m. It took 4 hours to complete the whole project.
Total 15 people were engaged in the project of cleaning the recreational area. Work was divided according to responsibilities and everyone had a particular responsibility to fulfill. The primary responsibilities were cutting grass, picking up the litters and cleaning the drain. The idea was to do all the activities in the stipulated time and clean the recreational area as soon as possible. The following are the responsibilities that were divided were as follows:-
Project name
The 3 member team who is in charge of the picking up of the litters.
The 3 member team in charge of removing the overgrown grasses and plants.
The 3 member team in charge of cleaning the drains.
The 3 member team in charge of brimming.
The 3 member team in charge of planting saplings and any additional activities.
The whole team is to work in a coordinated way which will help in cleaning of the whole recreational area.
The government authorities have promised to help the participating members in various ways such as providing a vehicle which will carry away the litters and providing equipment’s for cutting grass and weeds. The primary motive is to work together in a way that the work will be achieved in a short time and the authorities will also cooperate in a way that the adjoining areas of the recreational area will also be cleaned. The school adjoining which the recreational area is situated will also provide assistance in the process and the guardian of the children who mainly use the particular recreational area will also be helping. Funds will be collected from the residents of the region.
The primary objective is to clean the recreational area so that it can be again used properly by the children in the region and the problem of the children getting various diseases due to the unhealthy atmosphere may be solved. The visual aesthetic appeal of the region will be restored and the area will look beautiful and healthy ready to be used by the children of the adjoining kindergarten as well.
The estimated expenditure of the whole project will be 1000 dollars including all the equipment and all the resources to be used and arrangement of snacks for the volunteers.
The project expenditure will be collected from the residents of the region and also from the different NGOs that provide money for similar activities.
The planning of the project started from at least 2 months prior to the beginning of the commencement of the project. The members of the social work group had been planning from long time to restore this particular recreational zone for the children of the kindergarten and the adjoining regions so that the children can again play in a healthy environment and the aesthetic beauty of the place is returned.
The teams were divided and the work was divided accordingly. This was done to ensure that the whole work can be completed smoothly and all the members have particular responsibilities to perform.
Background of the Community Service Activity
The teams when they reached the ground had been ready with the required equipment and one coordinator was heading the whole activity and keeping a tab of the progress according to time. The teams were completing their own given tasks in the given time. And also all the teams were coordinated and synchronized. The litter picking team picked the litter, the team which had to cut grass and weeds completed that activity, the team to clean the drains did their job, the next team cleaned the area with brooms, and the last team planted the saplings as the last activity.
It is very important to have recreational activities along with academic activities in schools and kindergartens (Eyler and Giles 2014). The recreational areas must be very clean and suitable for the children to play and spend suitable time. The environment should be clean and the area must be well beautified. The basic idea of cleanliness is a litter free and well drained area where the plants and grasses are well maintained. This whole situation is maintained and the recreational area is restored so that the children can play and spend time in the area as per their wish. The desired idea is to make the place usable and beautiful, this objective was met.
The volunteer members are appreciated by providing certificates and recognitions to all of them. The government will also provide recognition to the organization and all the volunteers will be provided certificate for helping in cleaning the recreational zone for the children. The school has also announced a program to facilitate the members. Appreciation is also received from the citizens of the area who are amazed to see young people helping in cleaning the recreational area. Appreciation is important for continuing good work in the field of social service. The members are very much enthusiastic to receive so many appreciations from the authorities.
Reflection before implementation
For self-development of the individuals it is imperative to involve in activities that involve social good. Thinking about the people who are in need, the environment, the children and the elderly are the things one needs to consider in their lifetime as social service sectors. In this particular case the recreational area for the kindergarten children was decided to be cleaned and restored so that the children could play again in a healthy atmosphere. The planning phase was very interesting with members coming together to decide on the various techniques by which the recreational zone can be cleaned.
Reflection during implementation
The process of cleaning the ground was quite hectic and detailed process. The volunteers had to be extra cautious about everything because it includes children who will use the ground. Time was a crucial factor. All the teams that were divided, properly executed their responsibility that was assigned to them. After the team division was done there was a synchronized work that happened under the supervision of the supervisor. The volunteers were very enthusiastic about the work and completed the work before time.
Reflection after implementation
After the project was completed and the recreational zone was cleaned the kindergarten authorities, the residents of the region, the children and the authorities all were very happy at the work done. They were considering how fast the work was completed and the beauty of the place was restored. The recognition and the appreciation received was very much important for the volunteers which will help them in keeping up the good work for times to come
References:
Epstein, J.L., 2018. School, family, and community partnerships: Preparing educators and improving schools. Routledge.
Eyler, J. and Giles Jr, D., 2014. The importance of program quality in service-learning. In Service-learning (pp. 75-94). Routledge.
Flanagan, C.A., Kim, T., Collura, J. and Kopish, M.A., 2015. Community service and adolescents’ social capital. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 25(2), pp.295-309.
Solo-Gabriele, H., Brandão, J., Gordon, B. and Ferguson, A., 2015. Recreational Environment: Pathogenic Fungi in Public Places, Information Gaps in Assessing Public Health Risk. In Environmental Mycology in Public Health (pp. 167-192).