Community Service Worker Program

Lake: Smithville Lake, MO

Park: Project Wide

Corps POC: Bruce Clark, Operations Manager

Partners:

1.	Northland Alternative Services Program
2.	Clay County Circuit Court
3.	Platte County Circuit Court

Estimated Cost Savings: $20-25,000    Annual

Story:
The community service workers program provides us 800 to 1000 manhours of labor annually. The workers come to us from the Clay and Platte County circuit court systems and are individuals that have received sentences that would require large fines or a few days in jail. Such offenses include DWI's, DUI's, fish and game violations, etc., these are not hardened criminals. Most workers get 25 to 40 hours of community service hours to perform to offset their sentence. We utilize the workers in all aspects of maintenance activities; some work with a crew, others work alone. They perform a wide variety of maintenance activities including painting, picking up trash, trimming trees, replacing signs and many other tasks. One difficulty with this program was accounting of time to the courts and keeping track of workers. Several years ago a retired judge started a clearing house called the Northland Alternative Services Program (NASP). Each person assigned community service hours from the court must first report to NASP. NASP then assigns the workers to the place of employment. We simply accept the workers, put them to work and keep track of their hours. We fill out one very simple form validating completion of the work requirement. This form is then returned to NASP and they do all the coordination with the court system. We receive 800 to 1000 manhours per year and if you place a value of a WG4-1 on the work performed, it adds up to $20,000 plus annually. Great program, we love it and we get a lot of things done that we couldn't afford to hire done.

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