The Danger of Community Service Versus Civic Engagement: Where Should the Line Be Drawn?

Although in many ways community service is extremely beneficial, unspoken and problematic issues arise with who’s doing it and for what purpose. There is no arguing that on the surface, the surrounding impression of community service is nothing but beneficial and prosperous, however, with a slightly different lens and deeper analysis, it becomes apparent that there is a dangerous line between an experience for pleasure versus an experience for one’s personal gain. What is one’s true intention behind community service, specifically someone of the elite status?

The difficulty of assessing community service lies in the multitude of reasons and motivations behind doing it. This is primarily because the word service implies offering help to someone or something which automatically creates a power dynamic. One of the many dangers with community service is offering help out of pity or charity work, which evidently leads to a power hierarchy. As I previously mentioned, on the surface, there may not seem to be anything wrong with simply offering help, however the concern is rather with the idea that community service highlights the potential personal gain or growth rather than focussing on the intended impact on the beneficiaries. In many ways, this idea is closely tied to power dynamics and charity work. Charity work, I believe to be the more extreme version of community service, is most often tied to elite individuals or institutions attempting to use money and resources in the form of charity in their local communities. That is not to say that charity itself is wrong, however the way in which elites use their visible power over another person or institution evidently leads to and reinforces a hierarchy. This is not to say that all community service is rooted in beneficial gain or automatically perpetuates power dynamics, but rather those possible outcomes have to be discussed when one chooses to do community service.

While listening and reading interviews from a few students from Sankofa International College (pseudonym, as are all names of people associated with the school) in Ghana, one student’s perspective on community service stood out to me. His name is Thierry and his childhood is extremely intricate. Long story short, due to an incident in his family, he went from high middle or upper class to low middle class. it was therefore interesting to hear about his view and perspective on community service, due to the student experiencing multiple social classes. In the interview he is asked “The community service helped you recognize social class?” and Thierry’s response was fascinating. He said, “Eventually, I felt like a boss. They envy us like I wish I were like them. This is when you start realizing that social class exists and when you see somebody… It’s hard to understand when you’re in that situation and when you look at the differences these things exist.” Although it’s very important to recognize the difference in culture and environment, I thought his response was interesting coming from someone who would classify them as upper class at one point and middle class at the time of answering. This is not necessarily Thierry’s fault, however it can be traced back to the school who promotes this idea of what community service means and achieves.

I feel I must include that I recognize that I am writing this from a perspective of privilege and someone who has grown up surrounded by opportunities and resources that are not accessible to everyone. The reason I feel connected to this concept is because I was fortunate to have the opportunity to  travel to Costa Rica in 7th grade and then India in 11th. Those experiences have had a lasting impression on me as they introduced me to the conversation of the somewhat blurry line between the dangers and benefits of community service  The reason I say this and include this in the blog is because before traveling to these countries, my peers and I had to take a week-long class to learn the difference between a cultural immersion and community service. Although we participated in direct acts of service, such as building schools and playgrounds, I was cognitive of the risk of perpetuating hierarchies and savior complexes.  It is undeniable that we went to these places to help, however we did so in a way that tried to be aware of the spaces we were entering into; we were there to learn and to be in a relationship with the community that was founded in trust and reciprocity. With that being said, I recognize the implications, as a privileged person, of going into a ‘developing’ country with the intention to help without working to create a relationship with the community itself.  

I am not saying that any and all community service sustains power dynamics, rather that community service has to be done with intent and awareness to actively destabilize yourself from perpetuating savior complex and power dynamics. It has to be done by first creating and later sustaining a trusting and collaborative relationship with the actual community itself.  My angle of this blog is more centered around inspiring students who come from privileged backgrounds to really think about their motives and/or intentions for community service.