Community Engagement

Community engagement isn’t just a form of service at Penn Nursing: it’s essential to who we are. Community engagement is a fundamental aspect of Penn Nursing’s social justice mission. Our research and clinical expertise benefit those who live and work around us. Our community, in turn, helps us truly understand what we seek to learn in the classroom, lab, and clinical setting. 

The heart of our work

At Penn Nursing, community engagement forms the backbone of how we communicate, translate, and apply nursing knowledge. For us, this is not only our mission but a heartfelt commitment to partner with our community to improve health and promote positive social change in communities around Philadelphia and the world.

Several Penn Nursing students have successfully incorporated community engagement as winners of the competitive President Engagement Prize. These prizes reflect Penn Nursing and Penn’s commitment to public service by rewarding students who demonstrate a purpose-driven desire to get out and make a difference — in their community, across the country, and around the world.

Community partnerships and outreach

Working with our community partners has helped our outreach programs touch hundreds of thousands of lives, especially those of marginalized communities.

Our outreach efforts are supported through student-led initiatives such as Community Champions.

Part of the curriculum

Penn recognizes that putting theory to practice not only drives home academic concepts, it opens the eyes of students to related, real-life, human issues. Our Academically Based Community Service (ABCS) courses help you turn your knowledge into civic leadership, and are offered at Nursing and across the University.

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    New Role for Howard

    Monique Howard, EdD, MPH, Senior Director of Women’s Health Initiatives in the Center for Global Women’s Health (CGWH), has accepted a secondary role as Senior Director of Community Engagement.

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    Penn Futures Project Leaves Lasting Impact

    Penn’s unique cross-school collaboration, the Penn Futures Project, leaves impact on education, research, and Philadelphia.

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    Antonia M. Villarruel, PhD, RN, FAAN, Professor and Margaret Bond Simon Dean of Nursing, and Julie Sochalski, PhD, RN, FAAN, Associate Pr...

    Penn Nursing Focuses on Achieving Equitable Primary Care

    Data shows that unless the pattern of furnishing primary health care, particularly to underserved groups in both urban and rural areas, is drastically improved, these groups will suffer in inequitable and unnecessary ways. It is clear that the primary care workforce must be expanded and diversified.

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    Eidos LGBTQ+ Health Initiative at the University of Pennsylvania Partners with Gaingels to Devote Five Million Dollars in Research that Supports Advances in LGBTQ+ Health Start-ups

    The Eidos LGBTQ+ Health Initiative at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing (Penn Nursing) is partnering with Gaingels, an LGBTQIA+/Allies private investment syndicate, to provide their portfolio of companies access to Penn’s academic research to make an impact into the health and well-being of LGBTQ+ communities.

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    Penn Nursing’s Center for Global Women’s Health Awarded State Grant

    The Center for Global Women’s Health (CGWH) has been awarded another $30,000 grant through It’s On Us PA, a statewide campaign that aims to end sexual assault by bringing together college and university presidents, superintendents, administrators, teachers, students, families, and community members to reframe the conversation around sexual violence and pledge to be part of the solution.

Community Champions LOVE tiny humans!

Community Champions- HUP Baby Friendly Initiative

Community Champion nursing students have been part of the HUP Baby Friendly Transition Program for 2 years.

Our Nursing students love working with the nurses in the ICN. They spend their time reading to babies, holding the ones that need extra comfort, and talking to new parents about transitioning out of the hospital. To learn more about getting involved with community champions email: upenncommunitychampions@gmail.com