Netter Center for Community Partnerships at the University of Pennsylvania

Our Mission Founded in 1992, the Barbara and Edward Netter Center for Community Partnerships is the University's primary vehicle for advancing civic and community engagement at Penn. It brings together the resources and assets of both the University and the wider community to help solve universal problems such as poverty, health inequities, environmental sustainability, and inadequate, unequal education as they are manifested in the University's local geographic area of West Philadelphia and Philadelphia at large. The Netter Center develops and helps implement democratic, mutually transformative, place-based partnerships between Penn and West Philadelphia that advance research, teaching, learning, practice, and service and improve the quality of life on campus and in the community. The Netter Center works with and serves as a model for other higher education institutions across the United States and around the world. The Netter Center implements the following strategies to advance its mission: Academically Based Community Service (ABCS), involving collaborative real-world problem solving that is rooted in and connected to research, teaching, learning, practice, and service. University-Assisted Community Schools (UACS), a comprehensive, collaborative approach to neighborhood and school improvement that educates, engages, empowers, and serves not only students, but also all other members of the community. Anchor Institution Approach, in which universities engage and integrate their extraordinary intellectual and institutional resources in significant and sustained community-development partnerships. Inclusive participatory governance involving students, faculty, staff, alumni, and community members. Regional, national, and global adaptation of the aforementioned strategies. Evaluation of impact at Penn, in West Philadelphia, and beyond.