As you probably already know!

In 1999, the Ontario Ministry of Education announced that students entering high school are mandated to complete 40 hours of volunteer community involvement to obtain their Ontario Secondary School Diploma (OSSD). The purpose of the community involvement requirement is to encourage students to develop awareness and understanding of civic responsibility and of the role they can play and the contributions they can make in supporting and strengthening their communities.

Before beginning your community involvement activity, you must complete and submit a “Notification of Planned Community Involvement Activities” form provided to you by your school. You must complete the form in consultation with your parent if you are under the age of eighteen and must also have one parent sign the form.

When the activity is completed, you must fill out the “Completion of Community Involvement Activities” form, with the agency or organization completing their appropriate sections of the form to verify that the activity was completed. The form must also be signed by one of your parents if you are under eighteen years of age. You are to submit the form to your teacher or principal upon completion of the 40 hours, or at appropriate intervals determined by your teacher or principal.

You can select any activity (or activities) as long as it meets the ministry’s list of approved activities, or an activity that is not on the list provided that it is not an activity that is on the ministry’s list of ineligible activities. The list of eligible and ineligible activities can be found on page 4 and 5 of this handbook.