Engaging Locally

The Penn Compact, which was launched at the inauguration of President Amy Gutmann in October 2004, has become the vision that expresses the Penn community’s commitment to propel the University of Pennsylvania “From Excellence to Eminence." Eminence for Penn requires both academic leadership and social responsibility in carrying out the University’s core activities of teaching, research, clinical practice, and social service.

To fulfill the Compact’s commitment to local engagement, Penn is collaborating with local communities on many bold initiatives to improve public education, public health, economic development, employment opportunities, the quality of life, and the physical landscape of West Philadelphia and Philadelphia as well as to promote sustainable and equitable economic growth throughout the region.

• Penn Boosting Civic Capacity Through Eastern Development

• Penn Improving Public Education

• Penn Improving Public Health

• Penn Improving the Quality of Life

• Penn Driving the Economy

 

Penn Boosting Civic Capacity Through Eastern Development

• Extending William Penn's grid
• Forging connections between University City and Center City
• Positioning Philadelphia as knowledge industry leader

As Penn prepares to take possession of the 24-acre postal lands and properties, the University is planning to create a new neighborhood to its east that will boost the economic, educational, and social capacity of the entire city and region. This presents a rare opportunity to extend William Penn's original urban grid to transform Philadelphia into a much more dynamic city.

Over the next decade, Penn will begin converting surface lots, fallow buildings, and eyesores into beautiful parks and recreational facilities, new shops and restaurants, lively arts venues, gleaming buildings for teaching, research, and technology transfer, and inviting gateways along the Schuylkill River that will better connect the University and West Philadelphia to Center City.

By dramatically boosting the capacity and impact of teaching and research at Penn, this unprecedented campus expansion will position the city and region for national leadership in the knowledge economy.

 

Penn Improving Public Education

• Penn Alexander School
• International Studies High School
• Penn Partnership Schools
• University-assisted Community Schools
• Academically based service learning

Penn is making a dramatic difference in public education. Strengthened by the development of an innovative curriculum, rigorous engagement by Penn faculty, and stellar academic performances by the students, the Penn Alexander School has emerged as a model of a high-achieving, urban public school since opening in 2001. This past year's successes, which included the admission of 82% of the graduating 8th grade class to selective high schools, emboldened Penn to move forward with the School District on plans to create a college-preparatory international studies high school in West Philadelphia.

Penn has also taken a leadership role in partnering with the School Reform Commission to revive struggling public schools. By providing professional development and managerial assistance, Penn's Graduate School of Education has helped to improve student achievement at the Lea Elementary School, Wilson Elementary School, and Bryant Elementary School.

Penn is also deeply involved in assisting local schools to become educational, social, and service delivery hubs for their entire community. Penn's University-Assisted Community School model, which included major curriculum innovations, was awarded the inaugural W.T. Grant Foundation Youth Development Prize in recognition of “high-quality, evidence-based collaborative efforts that generate significant advances in knowledge while increasing the opportunities for young people to move successfully through adolescence with ample support and care.”

At the same time, Penn faculty and students are now deeply engaged in academically based service learning courses, community outreach, and organizational activities -- all of which promote better health and educational outcomes for local schoolchildren and their families. In the fall of 2005 alone, more than 850 students and 25 faculty members participated in service learning courses last fall.

 

Penn Improving Public Health

• LIFE (Living Independently for Elders)
• Penn Smiles
• Community health initiative at Sayre High School

Penn is aggressively bringing health promotion and treatment services to vulnerable and underserved members of the community who cannot access quality health care. Penn Nursing's LIFE (Living Independently for Elders) program provides nearly 300 West Philadelphia seniors with comprehensive nursing and medical care, rehabilitation, social services, and an array of recreational activities. LIFE saves the Commonwealth 15% to 20% in Medicaid reimbursement costs.

Penn Smiles is another innovative program in which dental professionals and students take to a fully equipped van to deliver oral health education, dental screenings, and treatment to neighborhood children and their parents.

Penn also began partnering with Sayre High School last year to establish a school-based community health initiative and clinic that promotes disease prevention through health and dental screenings and through the development of a health curriculum that draws on expertise of Penn's Barbara and Edward Netter Center for Community Partnerships and its schools of Medicine, Dental Medicine, Nursing, Arts and Sciences, Engineering, Law, Social Policy and Practice, and the Graduate School of Education.

 

Penn Improving the Quality of Life

• Comprehensive approach to neighborhood redevelopment
• University City District
• UC Green

Penn has leveraged its investments in public safety, enhanced mortgage programs, economic development, and neighborhood beautification efforts to attract new homeowners and nearly a half billion dollars of private investment in retail and new business development throughout University City. The neighborhood's arts and culture scene is thriving, and more than 300,000 square feet of retail space managed by Penn is 100%-occupied (an amazing feat that many suburban malls cannot match), contributing to a lively 24/7 ambience at 40th and Walnut Streets.

The University City District, which Penn helped to establish in 1997, is now playing a leading role in revitalizing the commercial corridors along Baltimore and Lancaster Avenues. At the same time, UC Green, created by Penn to spearhead volunteer beautification projects and recently granted its 501(c)(3) status, just planted 100 trees in West Powelton, just north of Penn's campus, with the help of hundreds of Penn students.

 

Penn Driving the Economy

• Center for Advanced Medicine
• Mixed-use housing and retail projects
• Economic inclusion

Penn has entered a new phase of building that is generating new jobs for local residents and new private investment in West Philadelphia and along the Schuylkill River.

For example, the construction phase of Penn's Raymond and Ruth Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine will create more than 1,500 jobs with more than $40 million in wages and benefits, as well as $3 million in wage tax revenues. After it opens in 2008, this state-of-the-art cancer, cardiovascular, and ambulatory care center will generate nearly 1,700 jobs, as well as $129 million in wages and benefits and $72 million in goods and services annually.

Penn also has leased University-owned property to private developers to build market-rate housing and ground-floor retail at 40th and Chestnut Streets, 3900 Walnut Street, and 34th and Chestnut.

At the same time, the watchword of the University's economic practices is inclusion. Penn is using its considerable purchasing and construction capacity, as well as its academic expertise, to encourage local business growth, empower minority and women business owners, provide women and minorities with greater access to the skilled and higher-paying trades, and create jobs. Local residents have filled more than half of the jobs created by Penn's retail ventures. Approximately 35% of all Penn construction jobs have gone to minority and women workers, and 26% of all contracts have been awarded to minority and women owned businesses.

Last fiscal year alone, Penn purchased more than $70 million in goods and services from neighborhood businesses, with $49 million going to minority vendors. And by helping its small-business partners acquire e-commerce capability, the University is empowering them to compete more effectively in the open market.

Download Penn Engaging Locally Brochure (PDF format)