Penn’s Field Center Celebrates Five Years of Making a Difference
April 23, 2009
For five years, Penn’s Field Center for Children’s Policy, Practice & Research has brought together experts to enhance the well-being of some of society’s most vulnerable members—abused and neglected children.
On Thursday, April 23, the Center celebrated its fifth anniversary and honored founding benefactors Joseph and Marie Field with a reception at the Please Touch Museum. In attendance were Penn President Amy Gutmann; Philadelphia Family Court Administrative Judge Kevin Dougherty; and Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman, who praised the Center for establishing a child advocacy center in Montgomery County, Pa., so that victims of sexual abuse do not undergo multiple traumatic interviews with different people.
In five years, the Field Center has also brought together technology experts, child-welfare leaders, business entrepreneurs and government officials to develop portable information technology that enables child-welfare workers to have real-time information at their fingertips.
The Center—the only organization of its kind in the country—is an interdisciplinary collaboration of Penn’s schools of Social Policy & Practice, Law and Medicine and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
“Thanks to the generosity, passion and commitment of Joe and Marie Field, the Field Center has become a leader and innovator in finding ways to protect the most vulnerable children,” said Richard Gelles, faculty director of the Center and dean of the Penn School of Social Policy & Practice. “Protecting at-risk children should be a top priority for everyone.”
