The present study aims at identifying the role of community responsibility in enhancing sustainable development with the intervening role of volunteer work in a random sample of students and staff in higher education institutions in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The sample consisted of 282 participants (male = 65; female = 217), their ages between 18–31 years (Mean age = 30.5 years; SD = 1.45). The study applied the Community responsibility scale (CRS; prepared by Hassan and Al-Salty, 2024) the Volunteer work scale (VWS; prepared by Salim, 2024), and Sustainable Development Scale (SDS; Al-Ismaily 2023) and used the descriptive method. The study found that 56.7% of the participants practiced high community responsibility associated with the social dimension. It also found a direct relationship between community responsibility and its dimensions and the total score of sustainable development. In addition, it showed that volunteer work partially mediates the positive association between community responsibility and sustainable development. Particularly, it revealed that community responsibility had a positive effect on volunteer work, and volunteer work in turn had a positive effect on sustainable development. The study concludes with some theoretical and practical recommendations including enhancing sustainable development through raising awareness about the importance of volunteer work among higher institutions staff, increasing community responsibility activities and practices within sustainable development goals among higher education institutions staff.