Court-Ordered Community Service Volunteer Guide

Application Procedures & Attendance

YOU MUST BE 18 YEARS OLD TO PERFORM YOUR COMMUNITY SERVICE HOURS AT DALLAS LIFE. ANYONE UNDER THE AGE OF 18 WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED EVEN IF THEY ARE ACCOMPANIED BY A PARENT/GUARDIAN.

All volunteers must first complete a Volunteer Application on-line by going to our web site www.dallaslife.org. Make sure to check the box at the bottom of the application indicating that your application is for court-ordered community service. The Volunteer Application must be approved by the Director of Operations or his assistant in order to volunteer.

We do not accept walk-in volunteers at Dallas LIFE. Please make sure you have received an e-mail confirmation from the Director of Operations or his assistant before coming to serve. If you are not on the schedule, you will not be permitted in the building, due to safety precautions.

Please arrive 15 minutes before your scheduled time to allow time to sign in and get to your post in time. If you are unable to attend on a date that you are scheduled or circumstances in your life change in which you are no longer able to volunteer, please let us know as soon as possible. You may e-mail the Director of Operations at jkoesema@dallaslife.org or his assistant David Shackelford at dshackelford@dallaslife.org. You can also call (214) 421-1380, x10 or x19.

Dress Code

All court-ordered community service volunteers need to follow the DLF dress code. Shorts may be worn, but need to come to the knees. Shirts must cover the body and have sleeves. NOTE: For your safety, you will be required to wear long pants if you are assigned to work in the Kitchen. Ladies: please no tight fitting clothes or low cut tops. Please wear tennis shoes or some kind of closed toe, rubber soled shoes to protect the feet – no flip flop or sandals in the kitchen. For those volunteers who are working in the kitchen, please wear a ball cap and a shirt preferably with no writing on it. If there is writing, please be sure it does not say anything offensive or include any beer/wine logos. As per health code, all food service workers must wear either a hair net or a cap. We can no longer provide hair nets to volunteers. For your safety, no jewelry can be worn if you are assigned to work in the Kitchen.

Statement of Faith

We are a non-denominational Christian shelter where Christ is preached and we strongly believe that salvation comes only through the finished work of Christ on the cross. Knowing that our volunteers may have varying views on the area of spiritual gifts, we do not embrace the use of tongues, healings, apostleship, prophecy or miracles, in that we see the completed scriptures as all that is necessary for us to operate as the church on the earth today, therefore, we simply ask that all refrain from utilizing or teaching in our chapel that these gifts are for use today.

Parking

Our address is 1100 Cadiz St, Dallas, TX  75215.  We are located right off of I-30 between Lamar and Griffin. We do have free parking. Our parking spaces are very limited, so if you are coming with a group, please car-pool if possible. If all the parking spaces are filled, you may park in the back of the building. Please be sure to let Security know what your license plate number is and where you are parked.

If at all possible, leave all valuables, purses and wallets at home or store them in the trunk of your car until you leave.

Authority at Dallas LIFE

While any volunteer is on site, he/she is under the direct authority of any Gold Badge employee that is in charge at the time and is required to submit to their instructions. If a volunteer fails to comply with the directions of any Gold Badge employee, Dallas LIFE reserves the right to ask that volunteer to leave and their Volunteer status will be reconsidered at that time.

Dallas LIFE is mandated by the Dallas County Health Department to have all volunteers who are working in the Kitchen sign a form indicating whether or not they have any blood borne illnesses that may disqualify them from working in our Kitchen.

All court-ordered community service volunteers MUST pass a criminal background check before being allowed to serve at Dallas LIFE.

All court-order community service volunteers are responsible to keep a record of the time they served at Dallas LIFE. Dallas LIFE is not responsible to keep track of your time served. Your time sheets must be signed off by the Director of Operations or his designee before final approval will be granted. Failure to do so will result in lost time served.