How Lil City volunteer hours work
Lil City is local news for your city, with stories from student reporters aged 13 to 17. Students log the time they put into their reporting, and a Lil City verifier checks every session before it counts.
What a student does
- Sign up, free Students 13 and up sign up on their own in the web studio or the iPhone app. No club is needed. Under 18, a parent or guardian gives permission by email.
- Report local stories They claim a story lead an editor picked, or start from their own idea, and write it in a six-step story builder. Every story and photo is reviewed before it goes live.
- Log each session In their portfolio they log the date, the minutes (15 to 600), the activity and a short note, within 90 days of the work.
- A verifier checks it A Lil City verifier for their city approves the session, lowers the minutes or rejects it, with a reason for any change. Only approved time counts.
How to check a student’s hours
- Ask for the activity report. Students download it as a PDF from their portfolio in the web studio, for the dates they choose.
- Open its verification link. It’s printed on the report: the Lil City verify page, followed by the report ID.
- Check that the totals match. The page shows “Verified by Lil City”, the report ID and the verified total in minutes and hours. It never shows the student’s name, school, dates or stories.
Lil City verifies and records the time students log. Whether those hours meet a requirement is up to your school or program; Lil City doesn’t set or guarantee any school’s rules. Students: check with your school about service-hour requirements.
Questions and answers
Who verifies a student’s hours?
A Lil City verifier assigned to the student’s city. For each session the student logs, the verifier approves it, lowers the minutes with a reason or rejects it with a reason. Nobody can verify their own hours, a verifier can never credit more time than the student logged, and every decision is recorded.
What does the verification link show?
The link on the activity report opens a Lil City page that shows “Verified by Lil City”, the report ID and the verified total in minutes and hours. It never shows the student’s name, school, dates or stories, so compare the report ID and the total with the PDF the student gives you.
Will these hours count toward our requirement?
Your school or program decides which hours it accepts. Lil City verifies and records the time a student logs for their reporting; it doesn’t decide or guarantee what any school accepts.
Does a student need a club or a teacher to take part?
No. Students sign up on their own, for free, in the web studio or the Lil City app for iPhone. A teacher or club that wants to bring Lil City to a group can email us; the For schools page has the details.
What ages can take part?
Reporters must be 13 or older; Lil City never creates an account for anyone under 13. If a student is under 18, a parent or guardian gives permission by email before any of their work is published or reviewed by the AI editor, and before they can create an activity report.
Can a report change after it’s created?
No. Each activity report is a fixed snapshot with its own report ID, and later sessions go into a new report. If a student deletes their Lil City account, their reports and verification links are deleted too.
Students: become a reporter · For schools and clubs
