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NYS Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance- TA and SNAP Employment Policy Manual

Section 385.9- Page 20 Rev. 4/2025 • Community service programs must involve structure and supervision by a work site sponsor, or other responsible party, on an ongoing basis, no less frequently than daily. • Hours of participation may include the actual hours that an individual is engaged in an on- site background check or assessment to determine an individual’s suitability for a particular community service program. • Community service programs do not include activities that meet the definition of another allowable TANF work activity (e.g., vocational education, JRT. • For households without dependent children, community service includes participation in substance abuse treatment programs, mental health and family violence counseling, life skills classes, job readiness training assistance classes and caring for a foster care child or disabled household member. Substance Abuse Treatment and Mental Health/Physical therapy should be reported distinctly within the WTWCMS system and NYC reporting platforms. Districts must report work activity participation in an activity that meets the Work Experience definition as Work Experience and reserve Community Service for the two instances noted below: • Participation that is truly volunteer in nature including unpaid work performed at a school, Head Start program, religious or faith-based institutions, government or nonprofit agency, or as a volunteer in programs such as Americorps or Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA) but will also include such mandated participation when court ordered. These placements would be distinct from Work Experience in that due to the voluntary nature of the participation the hourly participation would not necessarily be limited to the number of hours derived by dividing the amount of the household’s temporary assistance and SNAP benefits by the higher of the federal or State minimum wage. However, a social services district cannot mandate that a recipient perform community services for more hours than the number derived by the grant calculation described above. Participation in a voluntary self- initiated community service activity must be evaluated by the district to determine that such participation provides workplace experience and is expected to improve the employability of the participant. This evaluation would be based upon a review by the district of the tasks involved with the placement and the extent to which those tasks and routine attendance can reasonably be expected to improve the participant’s employability. In these instances, a participant could choose to no longer participate in such activity without penalty but would then be subject to an alternate assignment by the district; therefore, districts may want to require that these participants verify such participation on a more frequent basis than monthly. • Participation otherwise comparable to a work experience placement but categorized as community service to enable the district to use the corresponding federal activity “Providing Child Care to a Community Service participant” for another program participant who is providing child care for the community service participant. In this instance, the placement