2. Community Service Mission Statement

The Dalton School

The following mission statement is from a small private school in Manhattan.

Community Service is something that needs to be done. Community Service situates our moral center; it teaches us through experience—about the relationship between empathy and responsibility, about what it takes to be part of a community, in essence, about being human. Inherent in the notion of Community Service are the feelings of optimism and empowerment: we are optimistic that the world can change for the better and when empowered to effect that change, we as individuals can make a difference. There are no more important lessons that we can learn and teach.

For Survival

We are members of many communities: family, school, neighborhood, city, country, religion, and ethnic group. It is from these communities that we gain our sustenance. We must each play a role in contributing to our communities so that these communities can continue to survive and prosper. Benevolent action is essential to the survival and prosperity of any community. We must engage in Community Service because it needs to be done and because we need our communities to survive.

For a Moral Center

Community Service is vital to the healthy community. A community that takes without giving back, that is indifferent to the needs of its fellow members, that is only concerned with individual measures of success, is a weak, unsound community. The strength of a community can be found in its moral center; the ability to articulate and act upon a defined moral center will fortify a community. The moral center of a community, that place where we can find the values of empathy, compassion, and caring, is the basis for civic responsibility and the success of that community.

For Personal Enrichment

Doing Community Service is empowering. When an individual goes out in the world and interacts with other people in the spirit of bettering, that individual makes a contribution and will feel a sense of accomplishment.

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We are reminded all too often of the cynicism, indifference, and isolation that exists in our society. Community Service, the taking of physical action, reminds us of our connection and ability to connect. It is important to study the great actions of others, but participating in Community Service enables the individual to learn for himself and to teach herself.

For the Institutional Community

Our school is a place of learning; we need to integrate the ideals of Community Service into our academic curriculum. Because Community Service embodies experiential learning, locating a moral center, community health, because it is about empowerment and making the world a better place, because these issues are at the core of being, we need to do it. The desire to act comes from a pride, caring, and respect for a community. Community Service must be harnessed to foster a sense of community in a school, a neighborhood, and beyond.