The Siena School has a long-standing commitment to the social needs of its community. We like to share this commitment with our students, although all participation is on a voluntary basis. We believe community service provides our students with unparalleled opportunities to experience the city, make new friends of all ages and situations, and practice the language in challenging and, most of all, real situations. It is a very special way to become integrated into the life of the community and offers a vital step in bridging the gap between foreigners and 'natives'. We are particularly interested in promoting the arts as vehicles for social change, but are active in many different places and in different ways. Here is what we do and how you can help.

Since a year ago we have started a very happy collaboration between a number of families with small children and our students. Each family welcomes within their home two students who at least once a week go and play in English with the kids. This is a great, easy and interesting exchange. The children can learn a little English in the most fun way, whilst the student is 'adopted' by another family other than their host and can get to see who they are, how they educated their children and what their experience of Siena is.

Since 2007 the Siena School has been working on projects with ENS, the National Organization for the Deaf in Siena. We are creating opportunities for students to work alongside deaf children, create multimedia learning materials, such as books and videos, teach English to deaf Italian adults and take courses in Italian sign language. We also regularly collaborate on the organization of out annual interdisciplinary conference.