Penn-West Philadelphia Community Partnership Celebration Day
at the Sayre School (58th and Walnut Streets)

Saturday, October 9th

Many thanks to the hundreds of members of the Penn, Sayre, and Greater West Philadelphia communities who participated in a terrific event!

Click here to view photographs of the event.

Program Overview
This project is the kick-off for President Amy Gutmann’s inauguration. The Penn-West Philadelphia Community Partnership Celebration day will be held at Sayre High School on Saturday, October 9th. This event is open to all members of the Penn-West Philadelphia community. For a detailed schedule of the event, click here .

Three Major Themes
The Sayre project generally illustrates how a university can make a difference in its local community in ways that are consonant with and enhance its core missions of educating creative, caring contributing, democratic citizens and developing the knowledge necessary for an optimally democratic society.

This event specifically exemplifies three themes:

• A democratic, mutually-beneficial, mutually-respectful partnership between a university and its community
• “One University, One Community.”
• Penn as an engaged, democratic, cosmopolitan, civic university that exemplifies how universities can rise to the challenge of creating an optimally democratic and inclusive society.

Description of Activities
There will be three major sets of activities on this day:

1. Physical improvements to the school and surrounding community,
2. A free, community-wide health fair, and
3. A celebration of current and developing Penn-Sayre partnerships.

Physical Improvements to the School and Surrounding Community
Penn volunteers (students, staff, faculty and local alumni are all encouraged to participate) will work side-by-side with Sayre students, teachers, and community members on the following projects:

• Classroom, hallway, locker, and exterior building painting
• Exterior Mural/Tiling
• Gardening and Greening
• Cleaning up and improving a tot lot (play area for youth) adjacent to the school grounds
• Cleaning up and improving a community garden adjacent to the school grounds
• Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell’s office is working with block captains to make improvements to blocks adjacent to Sayre.

A Free, Community-wide Health Fair
A free, community-wide health fair, that builds upon the current Sayre partnership, where Sayre students will partner with Penn Medical, Nursing, Dental and Arts and Sciences students to provide the following:

• Medical Screenings. Sayre students, working under the supervision of HUP house staff, Medical School faculty and students, and Nursing school faculty and students will measure blood pressure, vision, height, weight, and glucose levels. Pamphlets will be distributed, and referrals will be provided where appropriate, on diabetes, hypertension, obesity, and other health-related issues.
• Dental Screenings. Penn Dental students will offer free dental screenings, and referrals where appropriate. There will be giveaways, informational sessions on sound dental hygiene, and the Penn dental van.
• Nutrition. Sayre students who have worked with Penn’s Urban Nutrition Initiative will showcase their knowledge of eating right by making healthy snacks and performing healthy cooking demonstrations.

A celebration of all Penn-Sayre partnership activities
The Center for Community Partnerships currently supports university-wide involvement at Sayre through several programs in addition to the above Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Program, including the following:

• The Community Arts Partnership will feature the recent and upcoming work of curriculum partnerships between local artists, Sayre classes and Penn classes. The goal of the Community Arts Partnership is to demonstrate how community arts can be used to meet community needs while improving education K-16+.
• The Community School Beacon is a resource to all members of the Sayre community. Specifically, there are after school, weekend and summer programs for local elementary, middle and high school students that are academic, cultural and recreational. Additionally, there are evening job training, academic, cultural and recreational programs for parent and adults. The Community School Beacon will celebrate all of its activities, including performances by its step team.

Additional activities will emphasize the celebration aspect of this day, including healthy refreshments, music, drumming, step shows, performances, and games for children.