Your service hours come from what you actually attend and complete: Core sessions, labs, experiences, missions, campaign work and your Community Impact Project.

See What Counts See the PALP Schedule

The Quick Version

You earn hours for what you actually attend and complete, not for registering.
You can earn 45+ service hours, depending on your activities. Campaigns, missions and your Community Impact Project can add more.
Community Impact Project hours count toward your total and are also tracked separately.
Keep proof of your work, such as attendance, work you produced or a supervisor's confirmation.

The Number to Know

45+ Service Hours, Depending on Your Activities

You earn 45+ hours from Core sessions, check-ins and missions, depending on your activities. Campaigns, missions and project work add more. You get credit only for what you complete and NVEEE can verify.

Verified scheduled participation

Verified variable work

Verified Community Impact Project work

Your Actual PALP Service Record

Start Here

Will This Count Toward My PALP Service Hours?

You should be able to answer this without reading a whole policy page. Ask yourself these five questions in order.

Ask	If YES	What happens
Is this an approved PALP or NVEEE activity, responsibility, mission, event, equivalent or project task?	Keep going.	Volunteering on your own isn't automatically part of your PALP record.
Did you actually take part or complete the work?	Keep going.	Being assigned something isn't the same as completing it.
Can your time and contribution be verified?	Keep going.	Use attendance, a roster, your work, a contribution log, confirmation from a supervisor or partner or other required evidence.
Is it Community Impact Project work?	Log it as Community Impact Project work too.	It counts in your PALP total and is also tracked separately as Community Impact Project hours, once, not twice.
Does the activity have a fixed duration?	NVEEE can use the verified scheduled time.	If not, your actual verified time is recorded, not a made-up standard number.

What Can Earn PALP Service Hours?

Category	Examples	How credit works
PALP Core sessions	October kickoff, November campaign and leadership Core, December Reset, January Relationships and Opportunity, February virtual Core, March Civic Action, April Adulting, May culmination, June close.	Verified attendance.
Required labs and virtual check-ins	Campaign Lab, post-campaign debrief, Opportunity Sprint, project accountability check-ins, coaching, Money Decisions Check, transition close.	Verified attendance or completion; time already built into another session isn't counted twice.
Designated experiences	Give Miami 5K activation, Holiday Party, Career & Mentoring Access, Civic Power in Action, approved Adulting experience or approved equivalents.	Verified event or experience time.
Campaign and service work	Give Miami Day activation and other assigned campaign responsibilities.	Verified work time backed by evidence. Money raised and hours worked are tracked separately.
Independent and field missions	Grade-level field work, Grocery Store Budget Mission, 90-Day Next-Step Mission and other approved assignments.	A set time when PALP sets one; otherwise your verified time plus required evidence.
Community Impact Project	Research, confirming the need, partner outreach, planning, carrying out the work, measuring, documenting, teamwork and other real project tasks outside scheduled sessions.	Verified time; included in your PALP total and also tracked as Community Impact Project hours.
Approved NVEEE and partner work	Designated events, responsibilities or remote equivalents approved by NVEEE.	Verified participation; project work can also be counted in your Community Impact Project hours where it fits.

What Doesn't Automatically Become a Service Hour?

PALP tracks verified participation and work, not intentions, titles or guesses.

× Registering for PALP doesn't create service hours.

× Being on a team or assigned a task doesn't create hours if you don't do the work.

× A leadership title doesn't create hours on its own; the verified work behind it can.

× Raising $100 doesn't earn you a set number of hours. Money raised and time worked are tracked separately.

× A Community Impact Project team meeting counts for the meeting time, but attending alone doesn't prove you did your part of the project.

Your Hours Come From More Than Meetings

If you only look at the Core calendar, you won't see the whole picture. Your service can happen in four places, all feeding one verified record.

Together	In the Community	With Your Project	Between Sessions
Core sessions, labs, virtual check-ins and the May culmination.	Events, field experiences, campaign work, partner experiences and approved equivalents.	Research, meetings, outreach, carrying out the work, measuring, documenting and working with partners.	Independent missions, assigned campaign work, follow-up, approved responsibilities and other verified tasks.

All four feed one record: Verified PALP Service Hours.

How Community Impact Project Hours Work

Your Project Hours Count, and We Track Them Separately.

Your verified project work counts toward your total and is also tracked separately as Community Impact Project hours.

Example: a verified record of 68 total PALP hours that includes 17 Community Impact Project hours is still 68 total hours, not 85. The 17 project hours are already inside the 68.

See How the Community Impact Project Works

PALP students working together on a service project

Service hours are based on real, verified participation, not on enrolling.

How Do I Prove My Hours?

Different activities use different evidence. You don't have to prove every hour the same way.

Type of work	Possible verification
Scheduled PALP session or virtual check-in	NVEEE attendance record or roster, plus any required work.
Event or partner experience	Event roster, host confirmation, proof of virtual participation or evidence for an approved equivalent.
Campaign work	Contribution log plus the actual outreach, content or other work.
Independent mission	The required work, reflection, video, photo, price evidence, proof of interaction or other evidence for that assignment.
Community Impact Project	Contribution log with date, task, time spent and supporting evidence; project check-ins may also ask for a personal update or screen-share.
Other approved NVEEE or partner responsibility	Roster, confirmation from a supervisor or partner, your work or other evidence that fits the assignment.

If you can't remember what you did, when or for how long, it gets much harder to verify months later. Keep your project and contribution records up to date.

Fixed Time vs. Actual Time

Fixed / scheduled activity	Actual-time activity
The scheduled time is already known. Example: a 3-hour Core session.	The amount of real work can vary by student or assignment. Example: campaign work, carrying out your project or an independent mission without a set time.
You get credit for verified participation in the scheduled activity.	You get credit for your actual verified work time, not a guessed number given to everyone.

If a project task took you 45 minutes, log 45 minutes. If a task took two hours, document the two hours and the work. The goal is an accurate record, not inflated numbers.

Service Hours Are Not the Same as Program Completion. Completion depends on every published requirement, and hours alone don't earn a title, a recommendation or Junior Counselor status.

What Record Will I Have?

Your hours become part of your PALP Achievement Record, a factual record of what you completed.

SAMPLE: Verified PALP Achievement Record (example only)
Service Hours	Verified total based on actual participation
↪ Community Impact Project Hours Included	Already counted in the total above
Projects / Workstreams	Completed and verified only
Leadership Roles	Actual dates and work completed
Titles / Awards	Only what you actually earned
Completion Status	Based on full-program standard

If You Live Outside South Florida

If you live outside South Florida, an approved equivalent with similar time and evidence can count toward your hours. A worksheet or livestream doesn't.

Junior Counselor in Training & Junior Counselor Hours: A Separate Advanced Path

Most PALP students are not Junior Counselors in Training. If you're selected for the Junior Counselor in Training pathway, you complete more service and preparation beyond standard PALP.

Junior Counselor in Training / PALS component	Current service hours
Junior Counselor Service and Training Retreat, Feb. 9–15, 2027	30 hours under NVEEE's service-hour policy.
Known Junior Counselor in Training minimum before PALS	75+ hours = 45+ PALP hours + 30 Junior Counselor Service and Training Retreat hours, before other PALP, Junior Counselor in Training, project or event work.
Florida PALS service	8 hours for each PALS program day + 8 hours for the required one-day early arrival.
Out-of-Florida PALS service	8 hours for each PALS program day + 16 hours for the required two-day early arrival.
Additional Junior Counselor in Training work	Verified time for assigned leadership practice, PALS planning, meetings and events, workshop testing, facilitation practice, coaching and rehearsal and other assigned Junior Counselor in Training responsibilities.

These hours are for the Junior Counselor in Training pathway only and don't reflect the standard PALP experience.

Explore the Junior Counselor Pathway

Quick Examples: Does It Count?

Scenario	PALP service credit?
You attend the full 4-hour October Core and your attendance is recorded.	YES: verified scheduled participation.
You are listed as the team's outreach lead but never send the outreach.	NO credit for work you didn't do; the title itself isn't time.
You raise $100 in five minutes by asking one relative.	The money raised and your service time are separate. Your verified work time, not the dollar amount, sets your hours.
Your project work counts toward both PALP and Community Impact Project.	YES, but once. It's included in your PALP total and labeled as Community Impact Project hours, not added twice.