The President's Council on Service and Civic Participation founded the President’s Volunteer Service Award to recognize the important role of volunteers in America’s strength and national identity. This award honors individuals whose service positively impacts communities in every corner of the nation and inspires those around them to take action, too.
A Certifying Organization is an organization that has been granted authority through an application and review process to give out the PVSA to volunteers. Certifying Organizations verify and certify that a volunteer has met the requirements to receive a PVSA within a 12 month period specified by the Certifying Organization. Only Certifying Organizations can certify volunteers’ eligibility for the PVSA and order awards.
PVSA Awards (Hours Required to gain different levels of awards). The PVSA is awarded to citizens and green card holders only. For volunteers not meeting this criteria, Care for Children will award certificates for their volunteer work and number of hours spent.
- Participate or lead one of the care for children or art of living volunteer projects
- More than 50% of the time must be volunteered for care for children fundraisers such as Mother’s day, Walkathon or annual dandiya night.
- Volunteers can also undertake an art of living project and help a bigger cause.
- Project must be pre-approved by the chapter leads
- Hours will be logged and tracked centrally and will be approved by select area leads. PVSA candidates will have the opportunity to log hours.
- Please claim hours judiciously, for the activity performed itself. Chapter directors or designated coordinators will provide guidelines ahead of the activity.
- General Guidelines of maximum hours that can be claimed for a project will be provided to chapter leads and shared with volunteers.
- Youth are encouraged to find activities that benefit the community . These must be pre-approved by the care for children board members Example providing support to homeless shelters, hospice etc.
- Youth volunteers are encouraged to start care for children clubs in their school.
- Volunteers willing to spend time with digital media and outreach will be a another way to contribute and add to accrued hours
- Parents are encouraged to participate with youth to improve bonding and enhance the spirit of service. However all communication and requests for hours for activities should come from young volunteers.
- Images supporting volunteering , blogs , articles are encouraged . Selected articles and images will be published on the central care for children website.
| Age Group | Bronze | Silver | Gold | Lifetime Achievement Award |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kids (5–10 yrs old) | 26–49 hours | 50–74 hours | 75+ hours | 4,000+ hours |
| Teens (11–15 yrs) | 50–74 hours | 75–99 hours | 100+ hours | 4,000+ hours |
| Young Adults (16–25 yrs) | 100–174 hours | 175–249 hours | 250+ hours | 4,000+ hours |
| Adults (26+ yrs) | 100–249 hours | 250–499 hours | 500+ hours | 4,000+ hours |