Unpaid community activities have been widely recommended as learning experiences for adolescents. An evaluation was conducted of two community action learning programs, one which placed adolescents one-to-one in adult-dominated settings and the other which gave adolescents a group project to plan and carry out with adult assistance. Both programs appeared to have parental support and to give participants the opportunity to form close relationships with adults. The Experience-Based Career Education and Executive High School Intern Programs placed adolescents in work settings without pay for extended periods of time. Evaluations of these programs by several investigators found similar patterns of strong support from parents and participants without strong objective evidence of learning. Findings support the need for a more differentiated approach to learning in the community than has been taken in the past, and suggest that such learning should be viewed as complementary to classroom learning rather than as a replacement, and that unpaid experiences can offer some kinds of opportunities not usually found in jobs that are open to adolescents. (Author)