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West Philadelphia
A Book a Day inspires young readers with inclusiveness and representation
A Book a Day, a nonprofit run by Penn GSE’s Sibylla Shekerdjiska-Benatova, has partnered with medical providers like the Puentes de Salud clinic to provide books to children, including titles in Spanish and other languages.
Deeply Rooted Collaborative awards more than $59K in ‘Community Green Grants’
The joint initiative from Penn Medicine and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia has awarded 21 grants to fund initiatives to fight food insecurity, community garden cleanup, education programming, and more.
A new generation reinterprets Paul Robeson, singer, actor, advocate, and all-American icon
In collaboration with The Netter Center for Community Partnerships, ninth-grade students from Paul Robeson High School trained to become youth docents at the Paul Robeson House and Museum through a program funded by The Sachs Program for Arts Innovation.
Seeking solutions to a shortage of educators
Penn’s Graduate School of Education contributes to the conversation about the scarcity of Black men as K-12 teachers.
Design and build, but first, collaborate
The Weitzman School’s spring design-build studio was a collaboration between students, community leaders, and residents to develop a key site as a visible distillation of the New Freedom District in West Philadelphia.
Penn Medicine to open new crisis response center at Cedar Avenue facility
As part of a unified mental health care hub at Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania–Cedar Avenue, the new model brings together emergency, inpatient, and outpatient psychiatric care on the same campus, creating the health system’s second consolidated mental health care site in Philadelphia.
Netter Center marks 30 years of community partnerships
With science experiments, garden plantings, and twirling flags, the Netter Center for Community Partnerships celebrated its 30th anniversary at West Philadelphia High School.
A community social worker balancing gun violence prevention and trauma recovery
Denise Johnson has two roles in Penn’s gun violence prevention efforts as program manager for the Penn Presbyterian Medical Center-based Penn Trauma Violence Recovery Program and the Penn Community Violence Prevention team.
Green solutions are transforming a West Philadelphia grade school
With support from grants and the Netter Center, the Andrew Hamilton School in Cobbs Creek is now home to a food forest and a thriving garden, providing healthy produce, green space, stormwater management, and educational opportunities.
Science and service at Philly’s Paul Robeson High School
Penn students in the Academically Based Community Service course Everyday Neuroscience team up with 10th-graders from Paul Robeson High School.
In the News
Here’s what these youth advocates have to say about Philly’s truancy problem, and how they would fix it
The Netter Center for Community Partnerships has more than 30 years of investment in connecting resources that address truancy, such as establishing after-school programming.
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Event recognizes legacy of Judge A. Leon Higginbotham
A West Philadelphia mural has been dedicated to the late Judge A. Leon Higginbotham, formerly of Penn Carey Law, with a quote from Osagie Imasogie.
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Education power players—Lauren Overton, Principal, Penn Alexander School
In a video interview, Lauren Overton, principal of the Penn Alexander School and a doctoral candidate in the Graduate School of Education, discusses how she and her staff at PAS have adapted to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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The West Philly housing crisis that was utterly avoidable
An in-depth examination looks at the solution that might have put a stop to the UC Townhomes housing crisis, with a glimpse at what President Liz Magill and her office are doing to help.
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Penn to build new Stuart Weitzman performing arts center in the heart of campus
Christopher Gruits of Penn Live Arts says that the new Stuart Weitzman Theatre will give artists more flexibility and completely transform the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts.
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University City is running out of real estate for life sciences development. The answer? Densification
At a Philadelphia Business Journal event, Senior Executive Vice President Craig Carnaroli discussed the lack of available land in Philadelphia for life sciences development and the need for densification.
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