What Is the MYP Community Project?
Jamal Lewis
The Community Project is a required, student-led project completed around ages 13 to 14, where students identify a genuine need in their community and take meaningful action to address it. It's smaller in scope than the Personal Project that comes later, but it's built on the same core idea: giving students a real, self-directed challenge outside the structure of normal classroom subjects.
The Four Stages of the Community Project
Investigating
Identifying a specific community need, researching its context, and defining a clear, achievable goal.
Planning
Developing criteria for success and a realistic action plan, including how progress will be tracked.
Taking Action
Carrying out the plan, this is where the actual service, product, or initiative happens.
Reflecting
Evaluating the outcome, the process, and personal growth, including how the project developed the student's service-learning skills.
The Process Journal: Documenting Your Journey
Throughout all four stages of the project, students must maintain a Process Journal. This is not a formal diary, but rather a working collection of notes, meeting logs, interview transcripts, brainstorms, photographs, and reflections that prove how the project developed over time.
Whether kept digitally or in a physical notebook, the process journal serves as the primary source of evidence for final assessment. When submitting or presenting the project, students select specific extracts from their journal to demonstrate their research skills, self-management, and problem-solving process.
How the Community Project Is Assessed
Like other MYP work, the Community Project is graded against four specific criteria, Investigating, Planning, Taking Action, and Reflecting and each scored 0 to 8, following the same criterion-based approach used across MYP subjects. It's assessed internally by the school, typically alongside a short presentation of the finished project.
Framing Your Service: Choosing a Global Context
To give the project real-world relevance, students must anchor their community need within one of the six MYP Global Contexts:
- Identities and Relationships: Focuses on human well-being, mental health, or social equality.
- Orientation in Space and Time: Explores local history, heritage preservation, or community evolution.
- Personal and Cultural Expression: Focuses on arts, local culture, communication, or creative engagement.
- Scientific and Technical Innovation: Addresses digital access, technological literacy, or local infrastructure.
- Globalization and Sustainability: Focuses on environmental conservation, resource waste, or climate action.
- Fairness and Development: Addresses rights, resource distribution, access to education, or civic responsibility.
Community Project vs Personal Project
For the full breakdown of the Personal Project, what it involves, how it's assessed, and how difficult it really is, see our guide: What Is the IB Personal Project?
Example Community Project Ideas
- Organizing a donation or fundraising drive for a local shelter
- Running a peer-tutoring initiative for younger students
- Designing an awareness campaign around an environmental issue affecting the local area
- Creating accessible resources for an underserved group in the community
The 4 Types of Service Action
When planning how to address their chosen community need during the Taking Action stage, students can choose from four distinct types of service:
- Direct Service: Interacting directly with the people or environment being served e.g., tutoring younger students or organizing a community garden cleanup.
- Indirect Service: Working on a channel that benefits a cause without direct face-to-face contact e.g., organizing a food drive or building software for a non-profit.
- Advocacy: Raising public awareness and educating others on a critical issue e.g., launching a school campaign about mental health awareness.
- Research: Conducting detailed investigations to collect and report data that helps a community organization solve a specific problem.
The Final Presentation: Defending Your Work
Unlike the Personal Project, which requires a long written report, the Community Project culminates in an oral presentation. Students present their completed work to a panel of teachers, peers, or community members.
Presentation Format: Individual presentations typically run 6 to 10 minutes, while group presentations run 10 to 14 minutes.
Key Deliverables: Along with the presentation (often accompanied by visual slides or media), students submit their official Academic Honesty form, selected Process Journal extracts, and a bibliography of research sources.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the Community Project mandatory?
Yes, for MYP students at the year level their school designates for it, it's a required component, not an elective.
Can students work in groups?
Yes, the Community Project can be completed individually or in small groups, unlike the Personal Project, which is individual.
Does the Community Project affect DP eligibility?
It's a required part of completing the MYP, so successfully finishing it is generally expected before progressing, though specific policies vary by school.
Is the Community Project mandatory for all MYP students?
The Community Project is mandatory for students in MYP schools that end at Year 3 or Year 4 (Grade 8 or Grade 9). In schools that offer the full 5-year MYP curriculum through Grade 10, the school may choose whether to require the Community Project in Year 3/4 or focus solely on the mandatory Personal Project in Year 5.
How big can a student group be for the Community Project?
Students can complete the project individually or in small groups of up to three students. When working in a group, every member must contribute equally to all four project stages and speak for an equal share of time during the final oral presentation.
What is the role of the Community Project supervisor?
Each student or group is assigned a teacher supervisor. The supervisor provides guidance, approves the project proposal, monitors progress through scheduled check-ins, and evaluates the final presentation against the official IB criteria. However, the supervisor acts as a mentor rather than a manager, the initiative and execution must come entirely from the students.
How does the Community Project connect to DP Creativity, Activity and Service (CAS)?
The Community Project builds the foundational service-learning and project-management skills that students will need in the Diploma Programme. The cycle of investigation, planning, action, and reflection directly mirrors the CAS framework required for all DP candidates.