Community Service

Each year offenders deliver an average of 148,000 hours of unpaid work to the community in Northern Ireland through a community service sentence. Community Service is one of the most successful court sentences in terms of preventing re-offending. Three out of four people who complete community service do not re-offend within one year. Some examples of community service work are environmental and conservation projects, painting and decorating, contributing to community clean-ups, working in animal shelters or assisting disabled people.  The Community Service sentence enables offenders to pay back to the community for the harm they have caused.  The work is either under the guidance of our supervisor or staff in the host organisation.

To see examples of current and recent Community Service projects across Northern Ireland please visit the News section on the PBNI website. You can also view our Community Service Strategy (PDF) or watch a video about Community Service on the PBNI website.

We can’t do this without your help!  We need to know about projects you think we could work on.

A project must meet the following criteria:

• It must benefit the local community
• It must not take paid work away from others
• No one must make a profit from the work
• It must be constructive and worthwhile
• It must be challenging and demanding
• Offenders must be seen to be putting something back into the local community
• Public liability insurance must be in place
• It must be within our capabilities and comply with health and safety standards

The Community Service team will assess the project for suitability and for health and safety implications.

You can complete the project nomination form here or you can email us at this address: [email protected]

Alternatively, you could telephone (028) 9064 7156 and talk to one of our Community Service Managers.

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