The Mindich Family Center for Community Values and Action (CCVA) was founded in 2006 to promote and strengthen the connections between ethics, education, and action at Horace Mann School and in our wider communities. The center fulfills its mission with curricular and co-curricular program, and all of our activities aim to promote the personal qualities and social contexts that will create caring, socially responsible young people who are aware of their interdependence in the world. The CCVA cultivates lasting partnerships with primarily Bronx community organizations and creates authentic opportunities for students to learn through service.

Guided by six core values that include, relationships and community, collaboration and continuity, understanding wider contexts, creativity and initiative, balance of structure and improvisation, and positive impact for all participants, the CCVA helps students become thoughtful leaders who recognize their ability to make a difference and work collaboratively to address challenges in their communities.

Horace Mann School incorporates service-learning, a pedagogy and a movement that combines community service and action with education, often through curricular connections. HM also has a variety of programs that fall under the heading of community service, which is defined as volunteer service performed to benefit institutions and communities. Both service-learning and community service are compelling components of our commitment to nurturing the “great and giving lives” called for in our mission statement.

Our program is intentionally designed to grow with students, building the knowledge, skills, and habits that support community involvement. Beginning with self-awareness and empathy in the earliest years, students gradually expand their understanding of community and responsibility through increasingly meaningful, hands-on experiences. Learn more about our service-learning programs. 

The CCVA offers the HM community with mission-driven service-learning pathways to develop leadership skills, real-world understanding, and sustained connections. With every learning opportunity, students follow the CCVA's Guiding Framework to deepen and enrich their experiences.

ASSUME COMPLEXITY
How do you incorporate the knowledge, perspectives, identities, and experiences of the community partners?

BEAR WITNESS & BUILD EMPATHY
How can you ensure that you are fully present and listening deeply? 

CENTER NARRATIVES
How can the programming honor the lived experiences and stories of the community partners?

DEVELOP WINDOWS & MIRRORS
What do you know? What do the community partners know? How can this inform the programming?

ENGAGE
How do you better engage with and support our expanded community?