Welcome, Mission and Vision

student in cap and gown hugging a staff member

Dear AVC Community,

Thank you for your interest in the important and exciting work at AVC!

Since our founding in 1976, AVC continues to evolve. We strive to promote joy and thriving within our community and to do our part to improve systems and remove barriers.

In the last decade, AVC has prioritized educational equity and a redesign of our systems. We strive to center student, family, and staff input in our decisions and to foster an environment where everyone is a leader and a learner. These priorities require continuous improvement, feedback from and for each other, and opportunities to celebrate.

This website is intended to provide a platform to celebrate our collective work and to support our ongoing efforts to live into our mission and vision with your input, feedback, and contributions.

With gratitude,

Cathy Cummins
Executive Director

Staff playing guitar; student smiling, hugging guitar to face

Mission

The mission of AVC is to partner with students, families*, school districts, and communities to cultivate a learning environment that embraces diversity of all kinds. We strive to evolve and adapt our approach of providing individualized support and access to resources in an equitable and human-centered way.

*AVC definition of families: all support networks, caretakers and champions of our students’ success

AVC has made educational equity its top priority:

It is a moral obligation that requires deep transformation at all levels.
It requires lifelong DEEP learning for all in the AVC community.
It requires tactical design of strategy and systems to remove barriers to transformation.

Shared Leadership at AVC:

At AVC we believe that everyone in our community is a leader and learner who each possess inherent brilliance. We also believe that every community member has the ability and a responsibility to support the learning and growth of ourselves and others.

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."

-Margaret Mead

Download our Brochure